Who Will Win? Different Surveys, Different Outcomes
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, October 26
The Georgian Dream ruling party and the opposition-minded private broadcaster Rustavi 2 have revealed two different surveys, with different outcomes ahead of Sunday’s presidential race.
The survey presented by the ruling party, which was conducted by the Georgian Psychoproject research center between October 15-21, reads that the Georgian Dream-supported independent presidential candidate Salome Zourabichvili will win October 28 presidential race with 54 percent of votes in the first round.
The survey was made on the order of the ruling party.
The Georgian Dream ruling party representative Mamuka Mdinaradze says that based on the survey, which is “very reliable with 2,200 respondents thorough Georgia”, the presidential candidate of 10 opposition parties, Grigol Vashadze, received the support of 11 per cent of voters in the survey, while the nominee of the European Georgia opposition party David Bakradze received 10 percent.
He said that 42 percent of voters have not yet decided who to vote for.
Rustavi 2 released the outcomes of the survey also on Thursday, conducted by American Edison Research, on the order of the TV channel.
The survey reads that Vashadze received 37 percent of votes, Zourabichvili- 32 percent and Bakradze-16 percent.
The survey was conducted between 15 and 24 October.
Several days before the elections Georgian PM Mamuka Bakhtadze said that Zourabichvili enjoys “complete support from the ruling party,” and appealed to several members of the ruling team to give up making some negative comments about the female candidate “who has high, European values.”
Vashadze says that Zourabichvili will not win the elections as she has no public support and speaks about the pardon of former President Mikheil Saakashvili “as soon as he takes the presidential post.”
