ISFED IS 20 YEARS OLD

1995

2003

ISFED
FOUNDED

2012

ELECTIONS PORTAL
LAUNCHED

FIRST OBSERVATION WITH PVT

METHODOLOGY ON ELECTIONS
IN GEORGIA

2010

WWW.ELECTIONSPORTAL.GE

SMS DATA COLLECTING

ON ELECTIONS

2014

MONITORING WITH TABLETS

20 YEARS OF ISFED

20 YEARS OF ISFED

We take pride in our regional representation and regional employees distinguished

by their work ethic and loyalty for common
values and ideals.

In September 2015, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, also
known as ISFED, turned 20.
In 1995, as the Parliament of Georgia adopted a new Constitution, the country was
preparing for the parliamentary and the
presidential elections; however, an organization that would carry out citizen observation of the elections still did not exist, which
is why four NGOs founded ISFED.

We are especially grateful to media representatives for always taking interest in

activities of the organization and certainly
to our partner and donor organizations for
their faith and support.
Some of the challenges and problems
faced by the country and the organization
20 years ago still persist; however, every
time we take a look back on Georgias
path of development of election processes, we become even more convinced that
our work over the years has had perhaps
invisible but a meaningful positive impact.

Absence of democratically elected local

self-government bodies; television and radio monopolized by the state; grave criminal situation; terrorism; series of unsolved
terrorist acts; legal nihilism; most severe
economic crisis, this is how ISFED described political and economic situation in
the country in its rst monitoring mission
report in 1995. The organization founded under those circumstances had rather
ambitious goals: promote development of
democratic political processes in the country to facilitate active citizen participation
and create the system of checks and balances with public involvement.

ties to respond to new political and social

needs, and maintaining high professional
standards.
We take pride in ISFEDs constant development and improvement of its monitoring
methodology, use of contemporary tools
and techniques of communication to increase trustworthiness and timeliness of
information collected by ISFED.

This was 20 years ago. Throughout this

time, ISFED remained true to its goals
and values, and carried out its activities
in compliance within internationally recognized democratic standards for monitoring
organizations.
Today ISFED is facing new challenges of
constant strive for organizational development, broadening the scope of its activi-

We believe in our goals and our values!

History of ISFED and its high professional
and ethical standards guarantee that these
values will remain intact in the future!
Congratulations! ISFED is 20 years old!
Nino Lomjaria

We take pride in ISFED being a truly

grassroots organization, operating with
the involvement of tens of thousands of
volunteers and active citizens who often
protected values of the organization at the
cost of their heroic actions and dedication.

20 YEARS OF ISFED

20 YEARS OF ISFED

ABOUT US
Throughout the 20 years ISFED has monitored 18 elections and made an important contribution to the improvement of the
Election Code as well as electoral and political environment in the country.

International Society for Fair Elections

and Democracy is an independent nonfor-prot non-governmental organization
with one of the broadest regional networks in Georgia. It was established 20
years ago for the purpose of carrying out
citizen monitoring on elections and related political processes.

400 MEMBERS
4 REGIONAL OFFICES
73 DISTRICT COORDINATORS

ISFED IS 20 YEARS OLD

9 BOARD MEMBERS
CENTRAL OFFICE
40 000 VOLUNTEER OBSERVERS

ELECTIONS
IN GEORGIA
UP TO VOLUNTEER
OBSERVERS
PVT METHODOLOGY ON
ELECTIONS IN GEORGIA
INTERNATIONAL
OBSERVATION MISSIONS

members of the Board for a three-year

term. One-third of Board Members are renewed on an annual basis, during General Assemblys yearly meetings. Executive
Director is appointed by the Board and is
charged with supervision of strategic directions and overall activities of ISFED.

Having one of the largest domestic networks in Georgia, ISFED covers all municipalities of Georgia and operates
through 4 regional ofces and 73 regional
representatives. As a membership-based
organization, ISFED brings together 400
members and has a supreme governing
body the General Assembly that meets
once a year. General Assembly elects 9

20 YEARS OF ISFED

ISFEDS MISSION AND

VALUES

20 YEARS OF ISFED

ELECTIONS
AND INNOVATION
Today the portal allows its users to follow
the course of elections online, because all
reports of violations detected at election
precincts by our organizations are automatically uploaded on the website. In 2012
we were the rst ones to introduce SMS
technology for collecting information from
voting precincts, and our observers monitored 2013 presidential and 2014 local
self-government elections by using tablet
computers, as a very efcient way to receive information from voting precincts.

ISFEDs mission is to spread and protect

democratic values by ensuring transparency of election processes, government
control and citizen participation.
Following are the main that underlie the
work of ISFED.
IMPARTIALITY
In its activities ISFED is guided by the
principle of independence and impartiality. In the process of monitoring elections
and the government, evaluating public
processes and mediating between the
government and the citizens, ISFED is
free from any political inuences and party interests.

HONESTY
ISFEDs management is based on the
values of honesty and integrity. Embracing the principle of transparency, information about ISFEDs activities, subsequent
outcomes and achievements, as well as
ISFEDs projects and nances are publicly available and accessible.

TOLERANCE
Protection of human rights is ISFEDs supreme value. Its projects, services and
employment policy provide equal opportunities and are based on the principles
tolerance and anti-discrimination.

RESPECT
ISFED and its employees operate in abidance by the principles of mutual respect
and cooperation both inside the organization and outside, while working with their
partners and colleagues.

RESPONSIBILITY
ISFED realizes vital role of civil society in
the development of democracy and therefore, has utmost sense of responsibility
towards its activities and subsequent researches, reports or other products.

20 years ago when ISFEDs rst mission

monitored the parliamentary and the presidential elections, technology was not as
advanced as it is now. However, despite
the fact that the rst monitoring mission
was carried out without mobile or Internet
connections, ISFEDs rst election monitoring report is an important historic document clearly outlining the deciencies and
gross irregularities in the process of elections in Georgia in 1995.

In addition to improving election monitoring, ISFED also focuses on training of

observers and improving training methodologies. Forms and guidelines of our monitoring always evolves and progresses in
between elections.

As technology progressed, ISFED modied and improved its monitoring missions.

As early as in 2003, for the rst time in
Georgia ISFED introduced Parallel Vote
Tabulation (PVT) - a methodology for
election observation. In 2010 we created
a web-portal www.electionsportal.ge, later joined by our partner NGOs, Georgian
Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) and
Transparency International Georgia.
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20 YEARS OF ISFED

20 YEARS OF ISFED

getting their voices heard about local priorities, as well as how to lobby various
issues and problems in front of the local
authorities.

FED carried out a large-scale monitoring of political processes that unfolded

in municipalities as well as staff changes
at the municipal level, and observed the
process of selection and certication for
municipal employment since 2014. With
ISFEDs active involvement, we were
able to prevent a number of illegal and
politically motivated dismissals of public
servants.

Over the twenty years of its existence, ISFED has held more than thousand meetings with citizens and local government
representatives with participation of over
20 000 individuals in total.

Projects that ISFED has been implementing throughout the years prompted local
authorities to take public interests into account, which is an important step forward
for implementing a meaningful self-governance.

ISFED cooperates with self-government

representatives on a permanent basis.
We implemented a number of projects
about issues that are important for public ofcials, including providing access to
public information, communicating with
local citizens, getting citizens involved in
budget making, etc.

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENTS

Following the latest parliamentary (in

2012) and local (in 2014) elections IS-

as well as to increase openness and accountability of Sakrebulos and Gamgeobas.

ISFED is one of the rst NGOs to open resource-centers in the regions in Georgia.
These resource-centers provided a venue
for meetings between local self-government representatives, political parties or
other public ofcials and constituents for
discussion of various important issues.
ISFED is implementing a number of
projects for monitoring local self-governments. Projects carried out by ISFED
over the years aimed to promote citizen
involvement in decision-making process,

Through our projects we met with population and elaborated detailed guidelines
and instructions for keeping citizens informed to increase their involvement with
the activities of local self-governments.
We conducted trainings about various
different issues, including citizen participation in budget-making process and

20 YEARS OF ISFED

ISFED FOR CITIZEN

AWARENESS
every one of these projects but we would
like to highlight several important ones.
In 2006, when Internet was not as widespread as it is today, ISFED launched a
special awareness project for people living
in the regions in Georgia. Citizen and the
Government was the name of the newspaper 60 000 copies of which were printed and
distributed throughout Georgia. Copies of
the newspaper that talked about legislative
reforms and other election-related matters,
as well as the role of local self-government
were distributed by ISFEDs coordinators
together with volunteers in rural areas.

From the day it was founded, ISFED has

been focusing on civil society development,
citizen awareness and education, as one of
the key areas of its work. All of our projects
involve communication with public, directly
or otherwise, and keeping them informed
about issues like elections, human rights,
local self-governance activities and citizen
participation in decision-making process.
Throughout the twenty years of its existence, ISFED has implemented a number of
projects for citizen awareness and has met
with tens of thousands of people. While it is
impossible to provide names of each and

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20 YEARS OF ISFED

To educate young voters ISFED launched

a campaign I Vote for the First Time. It
was the rst NGO in Georgia that decided
to introduce individuals who had recently
reached the voting age to Election Day procedure issues and explain the importance
of their participation in elections for democratic development of the country. Within
the campaign ISFED representatives held
280 meetings in 2006-2008 with rst-time
young voters throughout Georgia, including
in territories predominantly populated by
ethnic minorities, and printed a special brochure in several languages.
ISFED was one of the rst NGOs to utilize
innovative ways together with is partner organization GYLA to educate and engage
citizens in election-related matters. Volunteers together with ISFEDs employees
visited rural areas within the project Bus
Tours and met with thousands of citizens
to provide them personally with information
about election procedures, and distribute
brochures. In addition, we staged the election simulation with participation of local
population and installed public stands for
interactive open-air meetings with voters.
In 2008-2010, with close cooperation with
citizens throughout Georgia we implemented projects for increasing citizen participation in decision-making process. In parallel
with trainings and meetings, ISFED designed guidelines for detailed description
of instructions for educating citizens and
engaging them in local self-governance activities and local decision-making process.
Representatives of ISFED held systematic

meetings with population in rural areas. We

got involved in the process of addressing a
number of local issues and problems, which
were eventually solved in favor of the local
population.
To keep the population in rural areas constantly informed, ISFED also opened resource centers, including two in minority-populated areas of Samtskhe Javakheti
and Kvemo Kartli. Resource centers in Marneuli, Akhaltsikhe, Zugdidi, Gurjaani and
Batumi hosted regular discussions/meetings about election-related issues with
participation of local population. These
resource centers housed libraries that contained election literature and other types of
literature.
We focus not only on educating citizens but
also our trainer and coordinators. During
election period, we use contently updated
methods to train individuals who participate
in long-term or short-term monitoring missions of ISFED.

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20 YEARS OF ISFED

20 YEARS OF ISFED

REFORMS AND
LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES
laws proposed by the authorities.
For successful implementation of reforms,
ISFED is participating in task forces set up
over a number of different issues.

ISFED was one of the rst organizations

to lobby adoption of the Election Code. ISFED greatly contributed to the adoption of
the rst Election Code by the Parliament of
Georgia in 2001.

In addition, to educate public about legal

recommendations and ongoing reforms,
ISFED held a number of roundtables
throughout its partner organizations across
Georgia. The goal of these roundtables
was not only to provide participants with
information but also to hear their views.

Since then ISFED has been actively involved in the process of legislative reform.
Together with partner organizations it elaborated a number of legal proposals aiming
to remedy existing legal deciencies and
improve the election environment in general. Legal proposals initiated before the
authorities about a number of important issues, including the election system, voter
lists, use of administrative resources, party funding, media coverage of pre-election
campaign, etc.
Over the last two years ISFED has been
actively involved in the process of local
self-government reform. It participated in discussions about the new Local
Self-Government Code and was engaged
in elaboration of draft regulations about
civic participation in implementation of local self-government. ISFED submitted its
comments and opinions about the draft

12

13

20 YEARS OF ISFED

RALLIES AND CAMPAIGNS

ISFED has always been involved in the
process of democratic development of
the country, participating in planning and
implementation of various campaigns and
rallies.

must-offer regulations were taken into account by the authorities. The campaign
was renewed in 2014 - This Affects You
Too They Are Still Listening is a campaign against illegal surveillance by the
law enforcement authorities, where ISFED
continues to be actively involved.

One of the most successful campaigns

was This Affects You Too implemented in
partnership with other NGOs, for all TV
broadcasters with news programs to be
allowed to broadcast nation-wide. Our
recommendations about must-carry and

In 2014, in partnership with over 100 NGOs

we planned a large-scale campaign We
Choose Europe. This was a rally concert
on April 13, 2013, two months before the

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20 YEARS OF ISFED

EU-Georgia Association agreement was

signed. The concert was preceded by viral campaign about the EU involving wellknown citizens from different areas, as
well as, regular citizens who all explained
why they personally choose Europe.

the work of Coordination Group for Womens Political Participation.

ISFED was active in the rallies against
the Russian occupation in support of
Ukrainian people. It is also involved
in all campaigns speaking out against
abuses of human rights, including labor
rights, rights of women, children, people
who live in borderline villages or minority
rights in the country.

ISFED is a gender-sensitive NGO. Its

members and employees made important contributions to planning and implementing rallies of Womens Movement
protesting violence against women and
supporting womens political participation.
In addition, were are actively lobbying the
draft law on increased women representation in the Parliament and are involved in

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.
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20 YEARS OF ISFED

INTERNATIONAL ROLE OF
ISFED
charge of deploying and supporting international election observation missions on
behalf of ENEMO.

ISFED is a member of two inuential international monitoring organizations, ENEMO and EPDE. It observes elections
in Georgia as well as abroad, in different
countries of the world. To date, ISFED
has participated 31 international monitoring missions with its 23 long-term and 96
short-term observers.

EPDE
ISFED has been a member of European
Platform for Democratic Elections since
2012. EPDE brings together thirteen civil
society organizations from Eastern Partnership Countries, the Russian Federation
and EU with the aim of supporting Eastern
Partnership Countries and Russia in effective monitoring of elections and contributing to the democratic conduct of electoral
processes throughout Europe.

ENEMO
ISFED has been a member of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations since 2005. In February 2015,
ISFED was elected to the General Secretariat of ENEMO.

Together with partner EPDE members,

European Exchange and Promo-LEX, ISFED is implementing a project for capacity
building of the domestic election observer
organizations from the Eastern Partnership countries. In particular, ISFED is planning and holding workshops, trainings, internships, study visits and other types of
learning and experience sharing activities
both in Georgia and abroad.

ENEMO is a group of 22 civic organizations from seventeen countries of Europe

and Central Asia. Members of its network
include election-monitoring organizations
from Eastern, South-Eastern Europe and
Central Asia, which evaluate transparency
and fairness of electoral processes and
present unbiased and consistent reports
based on international standards.
As a member of ENEMO General Secretariat, ISFED oversees development of
institutional, nancial and public relations
strategies of ENEMO and their implementation. At the same time, ISFED is in

ISFED is also a member of EPDE Board

and therefore, it is actively involved in the
process decision-making in the platform.

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20 YEARS OF ISFED

STRATEGIC GOALS
nicipality in Georgia, ISFED is an NGO
with the widest network in the country. ISFEDs work in this area focuses on monitoring local self-government activities and
supporting their institutional development.
In addition, ISFED submits its input and
recommendations about self-government
reform

HELP BOLSTER DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS, SPREAD DEMOCRATIC

VALUES
ISFEDs work aims to promote democratic
reforms, formation of strong state institutions that are faithful to democratic values
and protection of human rights and the
rule of law. ISFED monitors authorities,
analyzes policy, provides constructive criticism and recommendations to help state
authorities implement reforms that mirror
public interests and the Euro-Atlantic path
of the country, and establish good governance and professional public service.

PROMOTE CIVIC ACTIVISM AND EDUCATION

Developed democratic societies are characterized with high level of civic activism
and education. Raising citizen awareness and promoting citizen participation
in public decision-making process is one
of ISFEDs priorities. ISFEDs work in this
area focuses on civic education and voter
awareness, with an emphasis on promotion of participation of

ENSURE TRANSPARENCY OF ELECTORAL PROCESSES

impartial coverage of electoral processes.
Specializing in elections, ISFED strives to
achieve fairness, equality and integrity of
elections by analyzing election environment and election laws, monitoring complete cycle of electoral processes, educating voters and ensuring public access to
information about elections.

FOSTER DIALOGUE BETWEEN CITIZENS AND THE STATE BY MEDIATION

AND ADVOCACY
ISFED has undertaken the role of a mediator between the state and citizens both
at both local and national levels. It aims
to help citizens advocate issues of public
concern before relevant bodies of the government and solve problems that exist at
the local level.

SUPPORT INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENTS

With its own representative in every mu-

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