Ruling Party Retains Big Lead in Leaked Poll

A recent public opinion poll, leaked to the media, shows ruling National Movement party in lead with 45% support, followed by Bidzina Ivanishvili-led Georgian Dream opposition coalition and Christian-Democratic Movement (CDM) with 15% and 9%, respectively, the Georgian media sources reported on May 3.

According to the USAID-funded public opinion survey, fielded by Tbilisi-based Institute of Polling and Marketing (IPM) in late March and early April for the International Republican Institute (IRI), which was leaked to the press, 7% of respondents said they would vote for none of the party and 20% either refused to answer or said they did not know for which party they would vote.

A separate poll for the U.S. National Democratic Institute (NDI), fielded in late February and early March by Caucasus Resource Research Centers (CRRC), showed the ruling party with 47% support, followed by the Georgian Dream and Christian-Democratic Movement with 10% and 3%, respectively.

IRI poll shows, that a ruling party candidate, whose name was not specified in a questionnaire, with 37% support in presidential elections if they were held at the time of the polling, followed by Bidzina Ivanishvili with 19% and leader of Christian-Democratic Movement Giorgi Targamadze with 10%.

The Georgian Dream opposition coalition said it deemed this poll, like the one carried out for NDI a month earlier, not credible.

“We do not trust these surveys,” Maia Panjikidze, a spokesperson for the Georgian Dream, said on May 3. “We respect very much both of these organizations – IRI and NDI… But we do not trust results of these surveys, because we do not trust methodology through which these surveys are carried out.”