On April 12-15, 2016, subject to the invitation from the Electoral Authority of Romania and the Council of Europe Venice Council, Natia Zaalishvili, Director, the Center of Electoral Systems Development, Reforms and Training visited Bucharest, Romania.
As part of the event, debates were held on the topic: Electoral Legislation and New Technologies: Legal Challenges, at which they discussed such issues as new technologies – inevitable challenge; electoral legislation and constitutional requirements; fairness, separation of powers, stability of electoral legislation – new technologies for voting.
The invited guests also participated in the 13th European Conference of the Electoral Management Bodies. Primary topic of the Conference held at the Parliament of Bucharest was New Technologies in Elections: Public Trust and Challenges. Participants held discussions around the use of new technologies during the pre-election period, as well as about the opportunities of integrating the mentioned technologies in the process of vote counting. At the Conference, they discussed legislative framework in light of using modern technologies as well as the matter of considering international principles. Tamar Zhvania, Chair of the CEC of Georgia, as well as Sophio Sichinava, Head of the Planning and Reporting Department, CEC of Georgia, attended the meeting.
Along with Georgia, leaders of Electoral Management Bodies of Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, Armenia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Kosovo, Kirgizstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine were involved in the Conference. Experts from Belgium, Estonia and Brazil, as well as experts of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, professors of political sciences from Great Britain and Austria and the following organizations participated in the event: OSCE/ODIHR, ACEEEO, Society of Democracies, EU, ICPS, International IDEA and OIF.
