On March 19, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) presented the final report of monitoring of the 2017 local self-government elections. The report covers the ISFED’s key findings and trends of the pre-election, Election Day and post-election periods. The report also assesses the work of election administration and other key actors of the electoral process. Besides, ISFED presented the recommendations on the improvement of electoral system, legal framework and overall election environment.

The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) has been conducting a long-term pre-election monitoring of the October 21, 2017 elections of municipal representative bodies - Sakrebulos and Mayors of local self-governing cities/self-governing communities - through 70 long-term observers since July 24. The monitoring is carried out with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The third interim report of the pre-election monitoring covers the reporting period of September 26 – October 16, 2017.

Within the reporting period, ISFED detected 13 instances of alleged political intimidation/harassment, 2 instances of violence, 4 instances of interference with campaigning, 9 instances of illegal participation in campaigning, 3 instances of misuse of administrative resources, 1 instance of possible vote buying, 4 instances of damaging campaign materials.

Georgia will hold regular elections of the local self-government bodies in October 2017. The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) will carry out monitoring of the local elections nationwide. Since July 24, ISFED’s 70 long-term observers (LTOs) have already been observing the pre-election period in all municipalities.