Economy and public health are top issues for Georgian people, NDI poll says

By Khatia Bzhalava

Friday, August 13

The poll revealed that vaccination hesitancy remains high as 47% of respondents said they would not get vaccinated.

According to the poll, Georgian people are the most concerned about unemployment (59%), rising prices (42%), poverty, and the devaluation of the Lari (19%).

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) and CRRC Georgia released a poll on Thursday revealing that Georgians remain concerned over the state of the economy and healthcare. According to the NDI, after months of political deadlock and against the background of the Covid-19 pandemic ‘the public is pessimistic about the direction of their country and the performance of institutions’. 52% of respondents assessed the performance of the government as bad, while 36% evaluated it as good. 9% did not know.

As the poll revealed Georgians are the most concerned about unemployment, poverty, and rising prices/inflation, the majority of them claiming that they can afford fewer products and services than before the pandemic. According to 56% of respondents, the cost of medicine is the biggest issue facing Georgia’s healthcare system today. As 8% of the surveyed people reported, they have lost their jobs completely, while 13% face salary reduction and the majority remain unemployed.

As for the epidemiological situation, a plurality of citizens (42 percent) believe that the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic is yet to come. 45% said that the vaccination process is going badly, and 42 percent of citizens feel that they do not have enough information about the vaccination process. As NDI reports, vaccine hesitancy remains high, the main reason being low credibility towards the vaccine. 47% of the respondents said they do not trust the quality of the COVID-19 vaccine, 20% named health-related issues as the reason, 13% believe that handling the COVID-19 pandemic is possible without vaccination, and 7% believe “vaccination has alternative goals.” Only 2% said they are generally against vaccination.

“Ensuring a smooth rollout of the vaccine and making use of trusted medical professionals to provide the public with accurate information will be critical to the government’s effort to safeguard public health. The lack of information can slow down vaccine distribution and prevent citizens from making informed decisions about their health,” said Alan Gillam, NDI Georgia Country Director.

According to the survey, 49% of respondents say Georgia is going in the wrong direction, as opposed to 23% saying the country is going in the right direction while 19% say Georgia is not changing at all.

The poll showed that the public wishes to see the Georgian Parliament focused on the economy, healthcare, and education. Unfortunately, more than half of the population (55 percent) does not believe Parliament is passing legislation on issues that matter to people.

The results reflect data collected between July 13-25 through nationwide mobile phone interviews (excluding occupied territories) with 2,016 respondents. The survey was carried out with the financial assistance of UK Aid.