Opposition Leader: NDI Survey Reflects the Hardest Situation in the Country

"This survey reflects the hardest situation and reality created in the country by the leader of Georgian Dream ruling party Bidzina Ivanishvili and his army of clowns," one of the leaders of opposition European Georgia party, Giga Bokeria, told reporters while commenting on results of the NDI recent poll.

The opposition leader also added that Ivanishvili, together with his political team, has turned into a "national threat" for Georgia and the results of the poll clearly show that the public are well aware of the above. 

"The poll results show that there is an unprecedented number of people who believe that the authorities are leading the country in the wrong direction. In terms of assessing the quality of democracy, we also see the anti-record. Naturally, our society, our citizens are well aware of how this shameful leader, along with his clowns, has turned into a national threat.

As for political parties, the situation is very clear here. The democratic opposition has clearly stronger support than the Georgian Dream. There are good results for us, for the 'European Georgia', too, but it is not of utmost importance; the most important thing is that Ivanishvili is doomed to failure. Our political team, the whole opposition and society should aim to do it at the expense of less harm to the country,” Bokeria said.

Earlier today, the parliamentary majority leader Mamuka Mdinaradze claimed that the results of the NDI survey cannot be trusted.

"We cannot trust the results of a survey that is at least 30% far from the reality," he said.  

The majority leader recalled a 2016 March poll conducted by the same institution, saying that the margin of error was about 30% back then. 

“We can recall the March 2016 survey, when the Georgian Dream was supported by 15% of the NDI respondents, while it gained 49% of votes in the elections. It means that the ruling team will receive over 60% of votes in 2020. Of course, I am joking now, but it can definitely happen. Sadly, a very authoritative research organization still chooses CRRC to conduct the survey,” Mdinaradze noted, adding that the details of the mentioned poll cannot be discussed seriously.

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) today released the results of its public opinion survey, which shows that the majority of the respondents think “no political party is closest to them”.

The poll results show that Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) has the strongest public support with 19% of respondents identifying GD as the party closest to them, compared to the United National Movement’s (UNM’s) 13%.

They are followed by the European Georgia, the Labor Party and the Alliance of Patriots with 7%, 6% and 5%, respectively.

4% of the respondents note the New Georgia party is closest to them, 3% name the Democratic Movement, while 2% name Girchi.

The results reflect data collected from November 19- December 13, 2019, through face-to-face interviews with a nationwide representative sample of Georgia’s adult population, excluding occupied territories, that included 2,180 completed interviews.

NDI’s survey work is funded by UK Aid. The poll was carried out by CRRC Georgia.

NDI is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

By Ana Dumbadze 

Related Story: Majority Leader on NDI Polls: We Can't Trust the Survey Results