OSGF publishes a study on the ethnic minority participation in politics

No law prevents members of minority groups from participating in the political process in Georgia, but in practice, these groups are underrepresented at all levels of decision-making.

The basics of democracy include the engagement of minorities in the political processes, creating equal opportunities, and representing their interests in the decisions that affect their lives.

According to the Georgian Public Defender’s office, the integration of ethnic minorities into the civil, political and social processes remains one of the main challenges for the democratization of Georgia. Despite numerous projects and initiatives, there hasn’t been a significant development in the engagement of ethnic minorities in the political processes.

Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF) conducted a study about the engagement of ethnic minorities into the political life. Several findings highlight the gaps in the governmental policies geared toward minorities.

One of the essential tools for ethnic minorities to participate in political processes is the elections. Therefore it is interesting how involved they are in the election process. The research was carried out in 2018, before the Presidential elections.

In the survey, 65.5% of the participants, all representatives of ethnic minorities, said that they were planning to use their constitutional right and cast a vote. There were no significant differences found in terms of the gender difference (see chart 1).

According to the surveys, 74.5% of the respondents said they participated in the 2016 elections, and only 20.7% said that they didn’t. These results are in line with the Caucasus Barometer survey conducted in 2018, according to which, 74% of the general population of Georgia said that they cast their vote in the elections and only 25% didn’t. But these answers aren’t reflective of the reality since only 51.94% of the population participated in the 2016 elections.

The survey also showed that over 90% of the respondents never participated in the planning of a political campaign, the number of those who have is only 5.9%.

Another important finding of the survey is that the ethnic minorities have low trust towards the political parties. Only 12.6% trust them (“mostly trust” and “fully trust” answers).

On average, on the scale of 1-5, the respondents trusted Georgian Dream and the United National Movement with 2.62 and 2.41, respectively.

The respondents’ trust in social institutions and political organizations is important as well. The survey showed that ethnic minorities in Georgia trust their respective religious organizations the most, closely followed by the European Union.

On the scale from 1 (don’t trust at all) to 5 (fully trust), on average, religious organizations got 3.95 and EU received 3.27 (see chart 2).

The study found that compared to the general population, ethnic minorities in Georgia face more social and economic problems: the education level is lower and the unemployment and poverty levels are higher. It is also noteworthy that the knowledge of Georgian language also poses a significant barrier in the political participation of these groups. Older generations have less understanding of Georgian.

The most severe socio economic problems that the ethnic minorities in Georgia face are unemployment and poverty, but the lack of state language is also a significant problem, especially in the Azerbaijani community, where the level of Georgian language knowledge is the lowest.

The study shows that in the Georgian political sphere, there are no political parties that represent the interests of ethnic minorities. No quota system encourages these groups to be represented in the parties. 43.8% of the respondents mentioned that the programs and the work of the parties do not include their needs.

The majority of the respondents agree with the political inclusion. But one third of them agrees that politics is the job for the elites and not for the 'ordinary' people. Only ¼ of the survey participants considered themselves politically active. The low rate of activities was explained with: the lack of interest in politics, family work, and the imperfect knowledge of the Georgian language.

The full study is available on the Open Society Georgia Foundation website (osgf.ge) in Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani languages.