Poverty, inflation, Covid - what are Georgian people worried about according to NDI polls
NDI polls in Georgia
The US National Democratic Institute (NDI) has published the results of a new sociological survey conducted in Georgia. Research shows that a large part of the population still suffers from poverty, unemployment and inflation. Trust in the government and the prime minister has also halved, and support rates for individual parties are so low that they cannot be used to predict election results.
The NDI survey was conducted on December 7-13, 2021 using a telephone survey method. Respondents were selected randomly – a total of 2,099 interviews were recorded. The average error margin was +/- 1.3%. Interviews were conducted in Georgian, Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian languages.
Poverty, inflation and democracy
According to the NDI polls, the population considers poverty and inflation to be the main problems facing the country – 32% named poverty and another 32% named the inflation.
29% of the polls participants, the main problem in the country is unemployment, 16% named compromised territorial integrity, 13% cited low pensions, and education and salaries were named by 11% each.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 21.3% of the population lives below the absolute poverty line, and inflation in the country is currently at 13.9%, which is the highest rate in the last ten years.
75% NDI polls respondents said poverty had worsened in the last 10 years, 17% reported that nothing had changed, and only 6% said that their lives had improved.
Among the ruling party supporters, 51% believe that poverty has worsened in Georgia, 29% believe that nothing has changed, and 19% say that the situation has improved.
There are different opinions about the general direction of the country’s development:
43% of the population believe that Georgia is developing in the wrong direction, 21% say that Georgia has not changed at all, and 27% believe that the country is developing in the right direction.
It is noteworthy that every second citizen believes that at the moment there is no democracy in Georgia. According to the NDI polls, when asked if there is democracy in Georgia now, 50% answered “no”, 39% answered “yes” and 11% were unable to give a definitive answer.
According to the majority of the respondents, Georgia is not a good example of democracy in the region.
The opinions of the repondents are distributed as follows:
- 23% – Georgian democracy is a role model for neighboring countries.
- 34% – Georgian democracy used to be a role model, but no longer is in recent years.
- 25% – Georgian democracy has never been a role model for neighboring countries.
- 18% do not know
- 1% refused to answer.
Power and opposition
According to the NDI survey, the majority of respondents are dissatisfied with the government’s performance: 52% of the population assess the performance of the current government as bad, 39% as good, and 7% are unsure.
- 35% assess the activities of Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili as poor;
- 46% assess the activities of Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili poorly;
- 46% assess the activities of the parliament poorly;
- 35% assess the performance of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) as poor.
The population still does not believe that the Georgian Parliament deals with issues that are important to them: 52% do not agree that the Parliament approves laws on issues that are important to them, 42% do not share the view that the legislative body exercises effective oversight of government activities.
According to the survey, the majority of the population believes that neither the ruling party nor the opposition act in their interests.
According to the NDI, the majority of respondents are still politically undecided. When asked which party was closest to their views, the answers were as follows:
● 58% – none of the parties / don’t know / refuse to answer;
● 24% – Georgian Dream (ruling party).
● 9% – United National Movement (the party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili).
● 8% – other parties.
The study found that individual party support rates are so low that they cannot be used to predict election results.
The personal assessment of Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has also deteriorated. Only 20% of the respondents appreciate the work of Prime Minister Garibashvili in 2021, while in 2020 the work of then Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia was positively assessed by 46%.
Vaccination
According to the NDI study, 42% of the population is not going to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
When asked whether they will get vaccinated against Covid-19, participants responded as follows:
- 25% – “Yes, I will”
- 42% – “No, I will not”
- 29% – “I am already vaccinated”
- 3%- “I don’t know.”
The study also highlights that 63% of those vaccinated will get a booster, 14% will not, 3% have already done it, and 20% don’t know whether they will get a booster.
According to the same study, the majority of the population is opposed to vaccinating children against COVID-19.
When asked whether they would vaccinate their child under 12 years old, the participants responded as follows:
- 26% – “Yes”
- 59% – “No”
- 1% – “I already did”
- 15% – “I don’t know.”
Notably, there is still high public concern about the quality of the vaccines available in the country, and this is the main reason most respondents cited when asked why they refuse to get vaccinated.
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When asked why they weren’t vaccinated, respondents cited the following reasons :
- 38% – “I do not trust the quality of vaccines”,
- 20% – “I can’t for health reasons”,
- 15% – “I think we can handle the coronavirus pandemic without vaccination”
- 7% – “I won’t do this, because the vaccine actually has other goals,”
- 6% – “I’m generally against vaccinations”,
- 6% – other
- 7% – “I don’t know”
- 2% refuse to answer.
According to the survey, the population believes that they have enough information about vaccination. When asked whether they have enough information about the vaccination, respondents answered as follows:
- 64% – “Yes”
- 33% – “No”
- 3% – “I don’t know”
EU and NATO
According to the NDI polls, the majority of the Georgian population continues to support Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration.
83% support EU membership, 77% support NATO.
The study highlights that citizens, regardless of political views, agree that EU membership is important.
