International Society for Fair Elections
and Democracy (ISFED) is an indipendent non-for-profit non-governmental organization with one of the broadest regional networks in Georgia. It was established in 1995 for the purpose of carrying out citizen monitoring on elections and related political processes.
Throughout these 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.
Having one of the largest domestic networks in Georgia, ISFED covers all municipalities of Georgia and operates through 4 regional offices 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 members of the Board for a three-year term. One-third of Board Members are renewed on an annual basis, during General Assembly's yearly meetings. Executive Director is appointed by the Board and is charged with supervision on strategic directions and overall activities of ISFED.
Since the day it was
founded ISFED has monitored all important elections and referendums in Georgia.
It has also implemented parallel tabulation of votes and monitoring of voter
turnout for the last 9 elections.
- 05.11.1995 – Presidential
and parliamentary elections in Georgia;
- 15.11.1998 – Plebiscite
of persons displaced from Abkhazia;
- 15.11.1998 – Local
government and self-government elections;
- 31.10.1999 – Parliamentary
elections;
- 09.04.2000 – Presidential
elections;
- 02.06.2002 – Local
self-government elections;
- 02.11.2003 – Parliamentary
elections;
- 04.01.2004 – Presidential
election;
- 28.03.2004 – Repeat
parliamentary elections;
- 05.10.2006 – Local
self-government elections;
- 05.01.2008 – Extraordinary
presidential election;
- 21.05.2008 – Parliamentary
elections;
- 03.11.2008 –
Interim elections of Supreme Council of Adjara and the Parliament of
Georgia;
- 01.10.2012 – Parliamentary
elections;
- 27.10.2013 – Presidential
elections;
- 15.06.2014 – Local
self-government elections;
- 12.07.2014 – Second
round of local self-government elections.
In addition to monitoring elections, ISFED has also implemented project in the
fields of civic education and local self-government, including
- Monitoring of
access to public information in government agencies;
- Monitoring of
citizen registration agencies in 32 regions;
- Monitoring of
accountability and transparency of local authorities;
- Monitoring of
local authorities;
- Monitoring of
transparency of local budget;
- Monitoring of
transparency of activities of the tax inspection;
- Monitoring of the
state auto-inspection, transport and registration agencies;
- Control of the
state passport agencies;
- Protecting rights
of recruits;
- Monitoring the
implementation of free state medical programs;
- Analyzing problems
of the socially vulnerable;
- Protecting rights
of land owners and raising their awareness about land taxes;
- 2010 local
self-government elections – monitoring composition of the election
administration;
- Promoting dialogue
and skills for effective national election processes;
- Role of civil
society in the Eastern Partnership Countries for reinforcing participatory
democracy;
- Promoting media
monitoring in Georgia;
- Voter list
verification commission and local self-government capacity building
project;
- Project for
monitoring the developments following 2012-2013 parliamentary elections;
- Raising public
awareness about the 2013 election reform;
- Legislative
reform;
- Representation of
women in local self-government Sakrebulos and gender balance in Georgia.