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All Programme activities related to training and
support for the election administrative bodies, voter marking,
parallel vote tabulation, campaigns to cast the vote and voter
education, were implemented according to schedule, with some
projects extending into the post-election period, such as the
project on parallel vote tabulation. Narrative and financial reports
have been received from most implementing partners.
The
assistance provided by OSCE participating States within the
framework of the Georgia Elections Assistance Programme enabled
the timely transfer of funds from the Ministry of Finance of Georgia
to the election administration bodies, to cover salaries of election
officials. This provided a crucial contribution to realizing
Presidential Elections within an extremely tight timeframe.
Moreover, the Programme enabled the civil society to play an
important role in promoting much needed confidence of the public in
the electoral process, through domestic observation, training and
media campaigns.
The 4
January 2004 Presidential Elections in Georgia were held in a calm
and orderly atmosphere, without any reported incidents of violence
or unrest. A very high voter turnout of about 83 percent, brought
the Elections safely beyond the 50 percent constitutional threshold
for the Presidential Elections to be valid. Polling station were
opened in Ajara, but, as in previous elections, the
secessionist-controlled parts of Abkhazia and South Ossetia did not
participate.
Following the pledging meeting on election
assistance to Georgia organized during the Maastricht Ministerial
Council on 1-2 December 2003 the Mission has laid the groundwork for
the unified elections assistance. In early December, the Georgia
Elections Assistance Programme (GEAP) was set up to facilitate
the provision of funds to various implementing partners for a
comprehensive package of technical assistance activities in time for
both elections. This effort has included the entire process from
identifying with implementers what capacity they have to initiate
projects in time for the early elections, co-ordinating with other
donors their bilateral contributions to different implementers,
identifying pledges from OSCE participating States and substantially
developing the GEAP. The mechanism of the Technical Working Group,
chaired by the Mission has proved essential on all of these levels,
as it brought together all of the donors, implementers and
diplomatic representations engaged in the field on elections
matters.
As identified at the Maastricht meeting, the
entire election assistance effort pledged by the International
Community to support the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections
totals approximately four million Euro, approximately half of which
was targeted for the Presidential Elections, and the second half for
the Parliamentary Elections.
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