NDI survey: majority of Georgian population distrusts government

Most of the Georgian population does not trust the ruling Georgian Dream party government, results from a new poll from the National Democratic Institute show.

The polls come in the run up to parliamentary elections to be held later this fall. 

Some of the main findings of the poll below: 

•Survey: most Georgians believe officials are corrupt

•NDI: half of the Georgian population is unable to afford utilities, and other poll results

•  The ruling Georgian Dream party could count on 20 per cent of the vote if elections were to be held today. Taken together, opposition parties could take 38 per cent of the vote.

•53 percent of respondents believe that the country’s development path has been disrupted. This indicator has been steadily growing since 2018. In July 2019, this opinion was held by 49 percent of respondents. 19 percent think the development vector is going in the right direction. 24 percent of respondents believe that nothing is changing in the country.

•64 percent of respondents negatively assess the work of the government. In December 2018, this figure was 40 percent, and in July of this past year, 60 percent.

•59 percent of respondents said that there is no democracy in the country.

•The number of respondents positively characterising the activities of the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) was reduced to 50 percent. In 2015 and 2019, this figure was 75 percent and 64 percent, respectively.

•Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili and informal leader Bidzina Ivanishvili enjoy the least popularity among politicians. The most acceptable figures, according to the survey, are the leader of the opposition European Georgia David Bakradze and Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze.

•The most rapid fall in the rating was recorded by Bidzina Ivanishvili. 49 percent of respondents have a negative attitude towards him, and only 16 percent are positive. His main political rival, the ex-president of Georgia and the leader of the National Movement, Mikhail Saakashvili, garnered the affection of 26 percent of respondents and the dislike of 39 percent.

•During the survey, the general disappointment of society with the activities of state institutions was revealed. Compared with the data from 2018, they all went down in the confidence index. The attitude towards parliament has sunk to a historical low. Only one percent of respondents called its work “very good”, and eight percent –“good”. 57 percent of respondents described the work of parliament negatively, while in July 2019 this figure did not exceed 42 percent.These are the results of a survey conducted by the National Democratic Institute among 2181 respondents from November 19 to December 13, 2019.