My Vote is Decisive! Civic Education for Young Voters

Good Governance Institute organized a chain of projects “My Vote is Decisive” to educate young voters in the election and politic-related matters, encourage information based voting and increase the level of involvement of the youth in the election and political processes. 26 applicants were selected for the project that covered training courses, election promoting events and debate tournaments.

The project of the three-month program combined theoretical and practical approaches. The theoretical part of the project covered four-day training about election-related topics, as well as the comparative analysis of Georgian and foreign countries’ election systems, in particular: active citizen and the role of the youth involvement in Public Administration; Polity of Georgia and the rule of formation of the electable institutions; Election-systems and types of democracy; Political ideologies and Georgian political parties; Right of choice – suffrage and practicing it; Gender equality; Election-related finances; Election Campaign and media; Administrating elections and modern electoral technologies.

As for the practical experience, participants of the project visited eight local self-government institutions and non-governmental organizations, including GYLA and IRI. The meetings gave them an in-depth understanding of the principles, challenges, and perspectives of the organizations. Moreover, as the events aimed at informing the various segments of the voters, participants had the opportunity to incorporate the knowledge and practice and promote elections by organizing events for ten days at different locations in Tbilisi.

The final stage of the project was the debate tournament among the participants. Two-day training aimed at advancing the skills in public speaking, rhetoric, debate formants and time management, and the final was held at Tbilisi City Municipality Assembly Hall.

It should be noted that the teams that competed in the final represented Good Governance Institute at Central Election Commission tournament “Young Debate-Club 2018” and took the second place in it.