NDI survey: 50% of respondents say Georgian gov't coping with crisis

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) released the results of a new poll conducted in December 2020.

Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, interviews with respondents were conducted by telephone, and 2053 respondents were randomly selected to participate in the survey.

The running trend that the NDI study showed is increased support for the Georgian government in general, and Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia specifically. The number of people who believe that the opposition parties best represent their views has also decreased lately.

Main concerns of the Georgian population

When asked which national issues were most important for the respondents and their families, the following answers were received:

Work – 46%

Poverty – 37%

Price growth / inflation – 31%

Territorial integrity – 22%

Coronavirus – 16%

Most popular parties in Georgia

Almost a half of the respondents – 49% – refrained from answering this question.

Out of those who responded, 31% named the ruling Georgian Dream party, 5% named the opposition United National Movement party, while the other six parties (Alliance of Patriots, Strategy Agmashenebeli, Girchi, European Georgia, Lelo, Labor Party) gained a total of 9%.

53% of Georgians believe faith has protected people from coronavirus

Meanwhile, a similar poll conducted in January 2020, found that only 19% of the respondents expressed the view that the Georgian Dream best represented their views, while 14% demonstrated support for the opposition National Movement party.

Assessment of government performance

50% of respondents assess the government’s activities positively, and 38% believe that the government is not doing well.

Personal ratings of the head of government are quite high at the moment: 46% of respondents approve of Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, 32% assess his performance as average, and only 17% are not satisfied with what he is doing.

Georgian president’s ratings are much lower, as only 15% assess her performance positively.

Similarly, only 15% of the participants of the survey are satisfied with the work of the Georgian parliament.

As for the Central Election Commission, 24% believe that it works well, 27% give it an average rating, and 32% are unhappy with its work.

Vaccination against COVID-19

The number of people who want themselves and their families to receive a vaccine against the COVID-19 has increased slightly in comparison to the findings of the December 2020 survey. When asked, “if there is a vaccine against coronavirus, would you and your children be vaccinated?” 41% claimed that they would, compared with 38% of positive responses found in June 2020.

The same number of people – 41% expressed a hesitation towards taking the vaccine, however, this number has also decreased compared to 46% reported in June 2020.

NATO / EU

The NDI also asked traditional questions about the respondent’s views on Georgia’s membership in NATO and the EU.

According to a December poll, 80% of the population supports Georgia’s membership in the EU, and only 8% are strongly opposed to it.

As for NATO, membership is acceptable for 74% and unacceptable for 9% of the respondents.