Political Ratings in NDI-Commissioned Poll

A recent poll, carried out shortly after the November 28 Presidential runoff, shows the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) enjoying strongest public support with 27% of respondents identifying GDDG as “the party closest” to them, compared to the United National Movement’s (UNM) 12%.

The poll, released on January 30, was fielded by CRRC for the U.S. National Democratic Institute (NDI) between December 6 and December 20. The survey was conducted through nationwide face-to-face interviews (excluding occupied territories) with 2,205 respondents and has an average margin of error plus, minus 2.1%.

• NDI/CRRC Poll, Political Ratings, December, 2018

According to the survey, 14% of respondents, either refused to answer or said they did not know which party was closest to them. 36% of respondents indicated “no party” to the question. The European Georgia and the Alliance of Patriots received 3% each, and 7% of respondents named other parties.

In NDI/CRRC’s June opinion poll, the ruling party was named by 18% of respondents as the party closest to them, followed by UNM – 10% and the Labor Party – 3%.

Asked which party they would vote for if parliamentary elections were held tomorrow, 29% of likely voters named Georgian Dream; 12% – United National Movement; 3% – Alliance of Patriots; 7% – other parties. 9% of respondents responded “no party” and 26% responded “don’t know.”

According to the survey, 69% of Georgians said that they voted in the first round of Presidential elections on October 28 (46.83% official turnout). The respondents reported a higher turnout for November 28 runoffs; here, 76% said that they participated (56.36% official turnout).

On the question of how Presidential elections were managed, respondents reported that the polling stations were mostly well ordered, and that the process was not intimidating, but almost a third (30%) said that they were not confident in the final count.

Respondents were interviewed on other topics as well.

According to the survey, 44% of respondents evaluated the performance of the current Government as “very well” or “well,” with 49% evaluating as “badly” and “very badly.”

The Parliament has a worse evaluation, with 71% reporting that the body is dominated by political bickering and with 55% saying it has failed to put forward important policies.

A plurality of Georgians believe there is some corruption in all government structures, with the majority pointing to nepotism as the main type of corruption. Nepotism is followed by misappropriation of funds and bribe-taking.

The survey results also showed that while 92% of respondents believe that living in a democracy is important, only 43% think that Georgia is currently a democracy. The lack of belief in Georgian democracy is at its peak since 2013.

NDI released the first part of its opinion survey on Monday, January 28. The results can be found here.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)