TBILISI, DFWatch — 80 percent of the Georgian population likes the new Prime Minister, while only 29 percent likes the president. 63 percent support the Georgian Dream coalition, while 10 percent support the former ruling party. Those are the results of a survey conducted in November by the National Democratic Institute (NDI).

The results were completely different before the election, when Saakashvili’s party had three times more support than now.

This survey is the first official survey conducted by NDI after the election. Luis Navarro, chair of NDI Georgia held two presentations – one about public attitudes, the other one about support for political parties, and it was the latter one he presented on Monday.

This is the third time NDI has published both the public and political part of the survey. The organization didn’t use to publish the section about political parties of each survey, but made it available to parties directly. Then party representatives would spread it to the media, but only that part which was beneficial to them, and this caused misunderstandings.

Before the parliamentary election, NDI changed its policy because of the increased interest and published political part as well. A new survey was presented on Wednesday. Luis Navarro, NDI country director for Georgia, said that the survey was conducted in the period 14-25 November. 1 947 respondents were questioned.


NDI surveys are financed by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and are conducted by Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC).

The first part of the newest survey doesn’t differ much from the previous surveys. Social issues are on the top among the most problematic issues for the population, with unemployment on top, followed by health care, territorial integrity, poverty and pensions.

But there is a trend in the survey which doesn’t directly apply to the section about political parties. Luis Navarro said that on the population’s rates National problems are different in eastern and western Georgia.

The level of how much people like certain politicians in both parties are higher than how well people rate their activity. The personal ratings of Bidzina Ivanishvili and Mikheil Saakashvili are much higher than their own parties.

Most of those questioned say that Georgian Dream will be able to solve issues like agriculture problems, pensions, health care, relations with Russia, issues with the prison system, employment, poverty, and human rights.

72 percent of those questioned put Defense Minister Irakli Alasania on top of the list of ministers which people think are the right person for their posts. He is followed by Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani with 70 percent. The other ministers get ratings from 42 percent to 66 percent. Kote Surguladze, State minister for diaspora issues, is the last one on list.