JAN. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> There is a new public opinion poll out in Georgia, produced by the National Democratic Institute (NDI). Is this important?
>> In a word – yes. This is one of the rare and generally reliable snapshots of public opinion that is produced in Georgia. Most other polls are biased towards whoever has commissioned it and their political allies.
>> So what did this one tell us?
>> The data is a result of surveys done in November, shortly after a parliamentary election that the Georgian Dream won easily. These results are reflected in the poll data which showed that for the first time since August 2014, more people felt that Georgia was going in the right direction. It was a close run thing, though, with 36% of respondents saying that Georgia wasn’t changing one way or the other, 32% saying it was moving in a positive direction and 27% saying that things were getting worse. This compares well to March 2016 when 40% of the respondents said that Georgia was heading in the wrong direction and only 20% said it was heading in the right direction.
>> And how did this compare to previous poll results?
>> When the Georgian Dream, the coalition funded, by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, first won power in 2012, the poll results for Georgia moving in a positive option were sky-high at around 60% or the high 50s. Things had slipped though.
>> What else does the poll tell us about Georgia?
>> By far the two most important issues for people polled were jobs and rising inflation – 58% of respondents said that jobs were a major concern and 38% said inflation was a major concern. Territorial integrity (27%) was ranked fairly highly but joining NATO (3%) and joining EU (3%), the things that occupy most of the politicians most of the time were towards the bottom of the list.
>> Have people’s priorities changed? Were they different when Georgia’s economy was doing better?
>> Much like the rest of the region, Georgia’s economy has been under immense pressure recently with a recession in Russia and an overly strong US dollar. Over the past few months, Georgia’s lari has plummeted in value and the government has warned of tough times. But, and this is the point, in good times or bad, NDI says that Georgians top five priorities are the same. These are, in order of preference – jobs, inflation, poverty, territorial integrity and pensions. Clearly other than issues over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, it’s all about the economy.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
