At a press conference today, eleven non-governmental organizations working on electoral issues announced that they are proposing Ms. Tamar Zhvania as a candidate for the chairperson's position of the Central Election Commission. 

Ms. Tamar Zhvania is currently a manager of the EU-UNDP project: Promoting Credible and Sustainable Electoral Institutions and Processes.

Ms. Zhvania has an extensive experience of working on election-related responsible positions. For the last five years she has been in charge of UNDP Georgia’s electoral assistance program and supervised joint projects of the European Union and UNDP. She has worked on electoral issues abroad, including as international program manager in National Democratic Institute (NDI). Tamar has been a representative of international observation in different countries as part of the missions of OSCE/ODIHR, NDI and Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. Her electoral engagement starts from 2000 in the civic sector. Between 2004 and 2007 Ms. Zhvania was an Executive Director of the International Society of Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED).

Tamar is a fully accredited facilitator of the BRIDGE program (Building Resources in Democracy Governance and Elections), and she has participated in different international trainings, projects and researches.

Experience of working on electoral issues in international and local organizations, knowledge of electoral administration specifics, nonpartisan background, and personal traits including objectivity and determination, were the main criteria the NGOs considered during the selection.

Presented organizations acknowledge the responsibility of proposing the candidate for the position of a chairperson of the Central Election Commission. As the organizations will actively continue monitoring the election administration and will not refrain from criticism if needed, we think that the proposed candidate has an ability to be open to critical responses and will show readiness for cooperation with both political powers and civil society organizations in difficult situations.

We believe that Ms. Tamar Zhvania meets the criteria that are needed for the candidate of Chairman of the Central Election Commission. We also hope that, alike the President of Georgia, the ruling coalition will also express its readiness to support our proposed candidate during the selection process.

Proposing organizations:

International Society of Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED)
Transparency International Georgia
Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA)
Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC)
Open Society Georgia Foundation
Article 42 of the Constitution
Public Movement Multinational Georgia
Coalition for Civil Development
Center Of Development and Democra
Georgian Democracy Initiative
Election Environment Development Center