Introduction

At the plebiscite held on January 5, 2008, 69,8% of voters of Georgia voted for holding the Parliamentary Elections in spring 2008. Based on the plebiscite’s results, the date for holding the parliamentary elections was set on May 21, 2008. On March 21, 2008, the President of Georgia issued Decree N196, setting May 21, 2008 as the Election Day. In his statement, President Saakashvili called on local and international observer organizations to observe, through their delegations, the Parliamentary Elections scheduled for May 21.

ISFED instantly expressed its readiness to conduct monitoring of the elections. In the pre-election period ISFED conducted talks with donors, mobilized its observers’ network staffed with ISFED’s long-term observers and short-term activists across Georgia.

ISFED conducted monitoring over the pre-election, Election Day and pos-election periods and conducted Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) of the elections held by a proportionate system, on the statistically representative number of precincts throughout Georgia.

ISFED observers filled out standard Election Day procedure monitoring forms. ISFED Election Day final analyses are based on findings of those forms.

During the Election Day, ISFED observed, filled out and filed 137 complaints at Precincts, Districts and Central Election Commissions. Based on the deficiencies detected by the election observation mission,

ISFED developed a set ofrecommendations for improving the future election procedures. About ISFED The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) is a non-governmental, nonpartisan, non-profit and impartial organization, which since its establishment in 1995 has conducted the large-scale monitoring of every election in Georgia. In addition, ISFED has monitored elections in Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, the USA, Kyrgyzstan, Albania, Kazakhstan and Norway by participating in international observation missions. ISFED is the only organization in Georgia, which conducted a Parallel Vote Tabulation and Parallel Turnout Tabulation (PVT/PTT) during the six 4 national elections held in 2003 Parliamentary, 2004 Extraordinary Presidential and Parliamentary, 2006 local self-government, 2008 Extraordinary Presidential and Parliamentary. Based on PVT/PTT results, ISFED disseminated the objective information regarding the election results.

In addition to the election-monitoring program, ISFED has implemented various projects aiming at supporting the process of democracy development in Georgia. Mainly, these projects supported the protection of citizens’ legal rights by monitoring the activity of the government and promoting its accountability, responsiveness and transparency.

First in June 2004 and later in 2007, ISFED redefined its mission and strategy; identified priorities and developed new programs to further support democratic processes in Georgia. Main directions of the ISFED strategy for 2007-2009 are: Enhancing transparency and accountability of government; Monitoring and improving electoral processes in Georgia, protection of electoral rights; Integration into international democratic institutions and supporting establishment of principles recognized by respective institutions.

Complete information about ISFED activities in Georgian and English languages is available on the
organizational web-site: http://www.isfed.ge

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