Ratings War

Just three days are left before Georgia’s local elections take place. Political parties speculate over the various ratings released by different polling organizations. They claim that gaining success is based on the surveys. If we trust the ratings, all the sides involved in the elections might gain success. For example, the Georgian Dream coalition is preparing for a tremendous victory. The party excludes the possibility of holding any second round elections in any city. It is also getting ready to accumulate the majority in the city councils. These prognoses are based on the research carried out by the coalition polls itself. Since the surveys have not been published.

The results of the surveys that are available and trusted by various political parties exclude such an overwhelming victory by the current government.

Candidate on the mayor’s post in Tbilisi, journalist Irma Inashvili claims that the polls untaken by her political team suggest that the Georgian Dream will not gain easy victory. She says that the coalition candidate on the mayor’s post in Tbilisi, Davit Narmania, is mainly being “attacked” by the journalists or public.

Various polls conducted by the political parties aside from the coalition suggest that Narmania will not get 50+1 of the votes required for taking the office.

The popular ratings outcomes also stress that the United National Movement is losing its rating as a major opposition party in the country. Thus, the question arises: if the UNM is not the major opposition in Georgia, who is its substitute?

Certain surveys illustrate that that position is being taken by Nino Burjanadze’s opposition unity. There are interesting observations as well concerning the foreign policy sympathies of some of the parties. A majority of the parties claim a Western course. However, there are certain parties with a clear pro-Russian orientation. Though it is hard to definitively assess what is in store in terms of the results of the upcoming elections, Georgia did conduct the last presidential elections in exemplary fashion. However, these latest elections represent another attempt by Georgia to hold fair and transparent elections in front of attentive Western eyes.