NDI polls: Georgians concerned about economic, healthcare issues, 54% of voters undecided

A big majority of Georgians continue to support the country’s EU, NATO integration. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

Agenda.ge, 12 Aug 2021 - 15:43, Tbilisi,Georgia

Georgians remain concerned about the state of the economy and healthcare, and are pessimistic about the direction of the country and the performance of institutions, polls released by the National Democratic Institute and CRRC Georgia earlier today say. 

According to the polls 61% are likely to vote in the October 2 municipal elections. However, 45% say that none of the parties are closest to their interests and nine per cent state that they do not know whom to vote for. 

Image: NDI.

 Georgians identified jobs, poverty, and rising prices and inflation as the top issues facing them and their families. 

A majority of citizens (68%) say that they can afford fewer goods, products and services than before the pandemic. Moreover, a quarter of the population reports either losing their job completely (eight  per cent) or experiencing salary/income reduction (13%) since the start of the pandemic; a plurality said they remain unemployed,” the polls say. 

Image: NDI.

A plurality of citizens (42%) believe that the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic is yet to come. 

Image: NDI.

Only a quarter of the public believes that Georgia is going in the right direction (23%), while only a third believe it is a democracy (35%). 

Image: NDI.

These represent significant decreases from one year ago in August 2020, where a plurality of Georgians held these beliefs (39% and 48%, respectively).  A similar trend is visible regarding the performance of the government: only a third of Georgians (36% positively evaluate the current government’s performance, a decrease from 50 percent in December 2020,” the polls say.  

Image: NDI.

More than half of the population (55%) does not believe parliament is passing legislation on issues that matter to them, while 54% do not believe an MP will take action if citizens tell him/her about problems in their district.. 

  • The results reflect data collected between July 13-25, through telephone interviews with a nationwide representative sample of Georgia’s adult population, excluding occupied territories, that included 2,016 completed interviews. 
  • The average margin of error is +/- 1.3 percent.