On 14 September, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) published their results from the public opinion polls conducted from 6-11 August in Georgia.
According to the main findings, Georgians remain committed to voting on election day (88%), but largely undecided (59%) ahead of parliamentary elections on 31 October. “Such a high number of undecided voters presents both a challenge and opportunity for parties. With weeks until the elections, they have plenty of work to do to inspire and motivate citizens by offering relevant policies on the issues citizens have consistently prioritized,” said Alan Gillam NDI Georgia Country Director. “The numbers seen in the final election tallies will look considerably different than the numbers presented in this poll as Georgians take the coming months to decide how to ultimately cast their ballots,” he added while speaking on the findings.
When it comes to the key issues for the upcoming elections, the voters remained focused on economic issues and open to persuasion based on party policy platforms. When questioned about major issues in Georgia, 49% answered jobs, 39% poverty, 28% territorial integrity, 20% rising prices/inflation, followed by education, pensions and wages. When deciding which party they will vote for, the participants of the polls noted that economic policy (36%), healthcare policy (12%) and stance on rule of law (12%) were among the most important factors.
While economic issues dominate at the national level, at the local level Georgians remain concerned about infrastructural issues, including roads (31%), water supply (22%), environmental pollution (13%), and traffic (13%). In Tbilisi, traffic and environmental pollution are the top priorities; other urban and rural settlements are focused on water supply and roads. Also, a quarter of the adult population reported that they are unemployed, which was a 7% increase from NDI’s June 2020 poll and likely an indicator of the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In regard to the trust in the upcoming elections, 56% of the questioned were confident that the 2020 parliamentary elections will be conducted in a free and fair environment. However, a third of Georgians (30%) reported that bribing of voters presents the biggest challenge to the integrity of elections, followed by violations during voting procedures (15%) and abuse of administrative resources (13%).
