MINELRES: PMMG: Promoting Ethnic Minorities' Participation in the Elections

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Original sender: �Multinational Georgia� <info@pmmg.org.ge>


Promoting Ethnic Minorities' Participation in the Elections

Since 2008 PMMG is delivering voters' education program "Voting for
Action". The main aim of this program is to raise awareness of the
ethnic minority communities on importance of voting and inform them
about programs of the political parties and candidates. 

Program includes publication of the programs of political parties and
candidates in minority languages in user-friendly form and carrying out
of the meetings of ethnic minority representatives with candidates and
political activists. All mentioned above also assists in development of
approaches of the different political subjects towards ethnic minority
communities and mainstreaming of diversity within political parties.
In year 2008 PMMG published two volumes with the programs of the
presidential candidates during the Extraordinary Presidential Elections
and with Programs of Political parties during the Parliamentary
Elections. Meetings with different candidates have been carried out.

Now in view of Local Government Elections in May 2010, PMMG using own
resources started to organize meetings of the ethnic minority
communities with the candidates on the position of the City Mayor of
Tbilisi.

Meetings will be carried out in two series: first series is for the
representatives of the Ossetian, Armenian and Greek Community is already
ongoing. Second series for the representatives of the Azeri, Yezidi
Kurdish and other ethnic minority communities is being launched now. 
We have already addressed 3 candidates who are running for the Mayors
office to arrange their meetings with the representatives of ethnic
minority communities of Tbilisi.  Mr. Irakli Alasania has already
launched the series of meetings with community representatives;
negotiations for drafting the schedule for the meetings are under way
with Mr. Gia Chanturia, nominee of the Christian Democrats for the
Mayors office; as for the candidate for the ruling party, National
Movement, we are still in the process of waiting for their approval.

Reports about the meetings will be regularly published on our web-site -
http://pmmg.org.ge/