Municipal Elections 2017: NGO Election Media Centre opens

Six non-governmental organizations (NGOs) observing the October 21 municipal elections will present their election reports from the media centre opened today.

The media centre supported by the Open Society Georgia Foundation will host 25 briefings in total on election day and the day after the elections.

The purpose of the media centre is to help NGOs and the media inform public over the elections’ developments. 

International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA), Transparency International - Georgia (TI), Center for Development and Democracy (CDD), Public Movement Multinational Georgia (PMMG) and Human Rights Center are the NGOs which will take the media centre for the elections.

• International Society For Fair Elections And Democracy (ISFED) will have a total of 1100   observers monitoring the course of the elections on October 21. 350 observers will be positioned across Tbilisi in polling stations identified by random sampling. 35 mobile groups will monitor the voting process and 73 observers will be deployed to District Election Commissions. 
• Georgian Young Lawyers' Association will monitor the course of elections with a total of over 500 observers, deployed to 300 precincts and 44 election districts in Tbilisi and  Georgian regions. 68 mobile groups will monitor the voting process and 82 observers will be deployed to District Election Commissions. 
• Transparency International  Georgia will deploy its 250 observers to each electoral district in Tbilisi. Observers will engage in both stationary and mobile types of observation, 200 stationary observers and 16 mobile groups of Transparency International will monitor the voting process at various precincts in Tbilisi.
• Public Movement Multinational Georgia (PMMG) will monitor the election process with 515 short term observers (STOs) in 13 election districts of 4 regions of Georgia - Samtskhe Javakheti, Kvemo Kartli, Shida Kartli and Kakheti. PMMG will deploy observers to Rustavi, Marneuli, Gori, Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki. A total of 72 mobile groups will observe the election process in these regions.
• Center of Development and Democracy (CDD) will engage in the election monitoring mission with a total of 100 observers, deployed to election precincts created in exceptional cases.
• Human Rights Center will monitor the course of elections in two regions: in the villages with prevailing ethnic minorities of Sagarejo, Telavi and Akhmeta municipalities in Kakheti region and near conflict zone villages of Gori municipality in Shida Kartli region.

71 local observing organizations have been registered to monitor.