The following is the text of Sopo Apriamashvili's report published on the Georgian Netgazeti website on 3 September headlined"  'Civil electoral commission' - A new initiative for monitoring the elections."

The Sirtskhvilia (It Is a Shame) civil movement and the Public Initiatives Association (PIA) has put forward a new initiative for monitoring the (2 October) 2021 self-government elections – the Civil Electoral Commission. The project creators said that it will be a kind of alternative to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) and its primary goal is to maximise public involvement in the elections.

"The (31 October) 2020 parliamentary election has clearly shown that public trust in the electoral administration is low. The election was quite far… from the desirable standards. Inappropriate reaction to the violations on the part of the CEC became the main factor that led to a political crisis in this country."

"The state has continued to exist against the background of an endless crisis for a year now… Due to this and other circumstances… the self-government elections have become important in a completely different sense. Therefore, the PIA and we, the Sirtskhvilia movement, are putting forward a new initiative - a civil electoral commission," Shota Dighmelashvili of Sirtskhvilia said during the briefing held on 3 September.

Dighmelashvili said that the organisation wanted to pursue the following activities during the election process:

1. Monitor irregularities ahead and during the elections and react to them;

2. Make an alternative count of the results of the elections and publish them in time;

3. Assess the elections and submit the results to local and international partners.

The Cec.org.ge website was created to help fulfil these goals. Dighmelashvili said that citizens would be able to see the whole picture of the elections in one place during the elections. Sirtskhvilia explained that election protocols and results would be uploaded on the website on Election Day in an organised, timely manner and would be available for everyone online.

"In the period ahead of the elections and on Election Day, photo and video materials will be uploaded on the website with the involvement of citizens. They will reflect electoral irregularities and will be [addressed] by qualified experts. We urge everyone, NGOs as well as the [whole] political spectrum, to join our initiative and get their representatives involved [to] make the process comprehensive and transparent," Dighmelashvili said.

The developer of the project idea, Akaki Khuskivadze, a specialist in electoral systems, said that the Civil Electoral Commission will have its representatives in the CEC, at polling stations and district electoral commissions.

Regarding the reliability of citizen uploaded videos and pictures, Khuskivadze explained that experts will assess the uploads’ authenticity and produce conclusions based on concrete findings. "There will be appropriate reactions and assessments," Khuskivadze said.

The local elections are scheduled for 2 October in Georgia.