Newspaper Resonansi
There are no significant changes in the results of the polls carried out by American National Democratic Institute – NDI. The priorities are also the same. Only increased mistrust to the CEC is the news. There was another interesting data – although we speak much about gender equality, the poll results show that population will not support female candidates. 37% of interviewed people states the country is democratic but it still needs improvement. It does not mean that we are already democratic country,” sociologist Marine Chitashvili told newspaper Rezonansi in her interview “Chitashvili: There is nothing new in the NDI’s research and neither political rating will be different.”
“The most extraordinary question, which I read in this survey, was about Bidzina Ivanishvili’s call. “If elections are fraud, Bidzina Ivanishvili calls people for street protests. Will you support Ivanishvili’s call?” As far as I remember Bidzina Ivanishvili has not made similar call or if he has made, it should be exact quotation! The survey was carried out early in August and late in August Ivanishvili made completely different statement in his six-point declaration; it states that if elections are falsified, he will not call people for street actions and will try to restitute justice with all legal mechanisms together with international community,” the sociologist clarified.
“Calling for street protests and Ivanishvili’s real statement at the end of August differ from each other. Although nobody called people for street actions, 26% of interviewed people supported street actions in July. Now, when Ivanishvili has not made similar statement, 16% of interviewed people are for it and 62% of them are against street actions. However, similar statement was not made in fact! I cannot say what the purpose of asking similar question to people is. You should ask the author of this questionnaire. This particular question is factual inaccuracy! I cannot say anything else,” Marine Chitashvili said.
“There is another question – do you agree appointment of Vano Merabishvili to the position of prime-minister? And 63% of population made positive answer. How can I believe that there is nothing more significant issue for the population, or there was no other suitable candidate for this position? I am not saying anything against Merabishvili’s appointment but by answering this question population supports decisions of the government and their policy. However, when there are problems of poverty and unemployment in the country and we do not expect any reforms for the next six months, how can 63% of the interviewed people support this decision? It is unclear for me. Besides that, there was question – which point of Merabishvili’s action plan is more significant for you – and 26% of population answered that it is 1000 lari voucher. In this case, apparently people, who know about this plan, think that additional 1000 lari from the government was main problem for the population but 47% supports the plan,” the respondent continued.
“One more signification case is that when interviewers ask about Bidzina Ivanishvili’s action plan, we should bear in mind that people, who do not watch Maestro, Kavkasia and TV9 do not know what access to media means. Consequently, people do not have information about Ivanishvili’s plan and nobody supports his plan. When we have equal access to alternative sources of information, we will be able to speak whether this survey shows real picture. When 65% of our population does not have access to media, why should we be surprised that they do not know anything about Ivanishvili’s plans?” Marine Chitashvili added.
“Which three reforms will be most important for Georgia and do you expect them to be implemented in Georgia for the next six months?” this question was on the questionnaire. All three reforms– reforms of healthcare, agriculture and pension had high rating. 37% of interviewed people hope for the healthcare reform, only 24% hopes for this reform that proves that people do not believe what they are promised. It is very bad that people do not trust future. Public surveys show to the government what should be done but you should ask government’s representatives why they do not do it. Recent surveys show that government does not listen to international organizations at all and they act according to their own decisions,” sociologist said and answered to the question –“Soon NDI will publish ratings of political parties; what do you except, will there be anything new?” and she answered: “In its best variant Georgian Dream might have a bit higher rating than in NDI’s previous survey. I do not except any principle changes now. Besides that, Georgian Dream’s leaders might have a bit better rating than CDM’s leaders. I do not expect anything else.”
Source: Interpresnews