Issue-based voter education campaigns
Save for elections and protest rallies, most Georgian citizens have never actively participated in civic and political life. Civil society organisations have only been able to marginally spur on civic participation. There are only few alternative policy options being publicly promoted by the different civic groups with a view to leading political actors towards content-based politics.
This is the reason why the programmes of the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) in Georgia will focus in the upcoming election years on issue-based voter education campaigns on key reform topics.
In cooperation with its local partners these campaigns will target citizens and civic organisations throughout all the regions and aim to strengthen their skills and capacity to hold their political representatives accountable with regards to fulfilling the country's democratic reform agenda.
EPD's latest project in Georgia under the Press Freedom Alliance 2.0 programme, which is implemented by the local partner Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (CIPDD), aims to enhance civic education and interest in politics through campaigns throughout Georgia, with a view to increasing participation in the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 2012.
In early 2012, EPD supported CIPDD in setting up a new website - "Shen Martav" (You Govern) - which will be based on the British website www.theyworkforyou.com. The website will aim at enhancing the accountability of political decision makers in three ways. Firstly, it will make parliamentary debates more transparent and accessible to the public by summarising them in plain language and showing the positions and voting behavior of the MPs. Secondly, it will show citizens which MP represents them in parliament, as well as provide citizens with their representative's profile and voting behaviour on central issues. Thirdly, users will be able to ask questions directly to their representatives. The MPs will subsequently be ranked according to their responsiveness towards their constituency. Ultimately, the website aims to strengthen the relationship between citizens and their political representatives in Parliament.