To examine composition of precinct election commission (PECs) set up for the 2012 parliamentary elections, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) carried out a joint project Monitoring of Election Administration Composition in 73 election districts of Georgia from August 1 through October 31, 2012.

Goal of the project was to examine the process of recruiting members of the election administration and compliance of election administration officers with the Code of Ethics, as well as to monitor any violation of election laws and imposition of subsequent liability. Furthermore, the project aimed at elaborating recommendations for the election administration for building trust and improving the practice of staffing election commission.

The project covered several key strands, including

1.   Examining composition of PECs through statistical study of 396 randomly selected precincts throughout Georgia;

2.   Monitoring  re-appointment  of  those  persons  in  the  2012  election  commissions,  who  were previously imposed with administrative or disciplinary liability during 2010 municipal elections;

3.   Monitoring of compliance with the code of ethics of election officials and imposition of adequate liability for violation of election laws.

The project was funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and implemented with the support of National Democratic Institute (NDI). Throughout the course of the project, ISFED and GYLA closely cooperated with the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia. Before launching the active phase of the project, the organizations introduced the project methodology and activities to the CEC. The CEC was also provided with results of different components of the monitoring.