IRI survey reveals 61% of respondents want to see new parties in upcoming elections
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Wednesday, August 4
The International Republican Institute (IRI Georgia) survey, which was published on August 2, was conducted during the period of 15-30 June 2021 by the IRI Center for Studies and Baltic Surveys/The Gallup Organization representative, the fieldwork was carried out by IPM.
Data was collected using a stratified multistage random sampling method through face-to-face interviews. The sample included 1,500 respondents with voting rights and age. Data were weighted by age, sex, region, and settlement size. The margin of error is +/- 2.5%; the response rate - 74%. The study became possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development.
According to a newest survey, 60% of respondents believe that the United States is the most important political partner for Georgia, 56% consider the EU to be Georgia's most important political partner, 32% say that it’s Ukraine, 11% - Russia, Turkey - 10 %, Armenia - 5%, China - 4%, Iran - 1%, None of the countries - 3%.
When asked which countries pose a political threat to Georgia, 79% answered that Russia is a threat to the country. To the question - do you support the future dialogue with Russia, 56% fully support, 22% partially support, 9% partially oppose, 11% categorically oppose, 3% have no answer.
However, when asked which countries are the most important economic partners for Georgia, 44% said that the EU; The United States has the same percentage - 44%.
Another question was - how do you assess the current government's attempt to normalize Georgia's relations with Russia - in total, 23% of respondents assessed it positively. These attempts are categorically unacceptable to 70% of respondents.
When asked about Georgia's foreign policy course, 32% think that it is only pro-European and Western; 52% answered that they are pro-Western, but by maintaining relations with Russia; 6% - pro-Russian, but maintaining relations with the EU and the West; 3% - only pro-Russian.
68% of respondents fully support Georgia's integration into the European Union, 15% partially support it. Overall, rapprochement with the EU is acceptable for 83%. In total, only 11% of respondents are against EU membership. A total of 77% of respondents support NATO membership and 17% don't.
As for the internal political situation, 62% of respondents think that the country is going in the wrong direction, while 26% think the country is heading in the right direction. 45% are satisfied with the current degree of democracy in Georgia, 51% do not share this statement. When asked how they would assess the current mood of the Georgian population, the answers were distributed as follows: Optimistic - 54% of respondents; Neutral - 34%; Pessimistic - 9%.
Polls mostly focused on upcoming elections: 75% of respondents plan to vote in local elections in October 2021. 6% have already decided not to go to the polls and will not vote - they are critical of the election and say they do not trust the election process, the election is not important to them, no party or candidate deserves support.
61% of respondents say they want to see new political parties and 31% are satisfied with the existing political choice. Respondents were also asked whether they agree or disagree with the following sentence: “Is it healthy for a Georgian democracy to have many parties in power?” - 51% strongly agree, 26% partially agree, 9% partially disagree, 8% strongly disagree.
According to an IRI survey, 51% are in favor of early elections, while 37% don't see the need for early parliamentary elections.
IRI also asked respondents which party they would vote for if the October local elections were held next week.
The answers were distributed as follows: "Georgian Dream" has 26% support, followed by "National Movement" with 14%; Gakharia’s For Georgia - 9%, Natelashvili's Labor Party - 3%, Japaridze's Girchi, Vashadze's Strategy Builder, Lelo, Patriots Alliance and Aleko Elisashvili "Citizens" have 2-2% support.
Levan Vasadze's party, European Georgia, Ana Dolidze's party, Elene Khoshtaria movement and Girchi have 1-1%. 1% - other parties. 5% of respondents wouldn't vote for any party, the answer to the question "I do not know" was given by 20%, and 7% refused to answer.
Meanwhile, 30% of respondents would not vote for the National Movement under any circumstances, 24% wouldn't vote for the Georgian Dream, 10% - Girchi and the Patriots Alliance.
14% of respondents are confident that the next elections will be held in a free and fair environment, 38% believe that it is likely to be so, 25% think that it will not be free and fair, 13% categorically rule out that the next elections in October will be free and fair, 9% have no answer to the question or no answer.
As for the rating of Public figures, 88% of respondents like Patriarch Ilia II very much, Kakha Kaladze, the mayor of the capital and the mayoral candidate of he Georgian Dream, has the rating of 58% of the respondents very much, and Giorgi Gakharia, and Former Prime Minister and Chairman of the Party for Georgia, is very much liked by 56% of respondents. Next comes current PM Irakli Gharibashvili with the rating of 40%, followed by Nika Melia, the chairman of the United National Movement and the party's Tbilisi mayoral candidate with 39%.
According to an IRI survey, 54% of the respondents are satisfied with the activities of the Tbilisi Mayor and 43% are dissatisfied.
Given the current epidemic situation in the country, it’s important that the number of Georgian citizens who oppose the COVID-19 vaccine is increasing - 45% of citizens say they will not get the vaccine. This figure has increased by 6 points compared to the February 2021 survey.
