Ruling Party, Opposition Assess NDI-Commissioned Survey
Ruling Georgian Dream party and opposition politicians have assessed the recent public opinion survey results released by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) on January 16.
Civil.ge offers a compilation of these assessments.
Kakha Kaladze, Georgian Dream’s secretary general/Tbilisi Mayor: “My position towards NDI surveys remains the same. I think these are deliberate political manipulations aimed to somehow mislead the society, but in vain. I know public attitudes towards my party and towards me very well; so, we have very good relations with the public, people… They [NDI] write these figures in a way they want, they do not have this problem.”
Salome Samadashvili, United National Movement: “The great majority of people want changes in the country, because 80% of our voters will not actually cast their votes for this party [Georgian Dream]. Now, the main task of the opposition parties and, firstly, our party is just to convince undecided voters. Such negative attitude is a continuation of general attitude our voters have towards Bidzina Ivanishvili [founder and chairman of Georgian Dream party], because they see very well that the Parliament is not the representative body, but rather it has turned into Ivanishvili’s subordinate agency, rubber-stamping his instructions.”
Giga Bokeria, European Georgia: “The survey reflects the gravest situation Ivanishvili and the army of his clowns have led the country to. It reveals historical anti-record of number of people, saying that the government leads the country in the wrong direction, towards political abyss. Historical anti-record has also been observed in assessing the quality of democracy in the country and it is natural because the society, our citizens see that this shameful leader and his clowns have turned into a national threat.”
Shalva Natelashvili, Labor Party: “The survey has shown that a deplorable situation has been established in our country under the oligarchic rule. The poll made it clear that the state has been bought, all branches of government have collapsed, this regime enjoys no public trust, there is no democracy in our country and the government, judicial authorities and Parliament are not authoritative, and unfortunately, the Georgian Orthodox Church is also ranked among those [that are not authoritative/reputable] largely due to objective reasons. The survey results are not the fault of respondents [of the poll] or NDI, but rather it is the result of the incumbent government’s politics, which has led the country to this chaos. Incumbent and future politicians will draw lessons on how politics and politicians should not look like.”
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