National Democratic Institute (NDI) and CRRC Georgia poll results released today show that there has been a slight decrease in disapproval rate for the EU and NATO among Georgians since December 2017.
Georgian approval for membership in the EU is at 75 percent and in NATO at 65 percent.
The results show that the assessment of the government’s performance is divided, with 49 percent evaluating it negatively and 44 percent positively.
Public service halls, army, and the church are viewed as the best performing national institutions, although the church’s favorability has significantly dropped to 56 percent from almost 80 percent in 2015.
The lowest performing national institutions are the courts, with a 30 percent negative evaluation and only 14 percent positive, and parliament, which 35 percent of citizens assess negatively, up from only 10 percent in 2014.
Support for political parties is low, with 26 percent saying Georgian Dream is closest to them, nine percent UNM, and four percent European Georgia.
Georgians are mixed about the country’s direction, NDI says. Almost 40 percent believe the country is going in the wrong direction, with 29 percent stating that the country is going in the "right direction” and 29 percent saying there is no change.
With regard to the job performance of national leaders, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, President Giorgi Margvelashvili, and minority leader David Bakradze were assessed most positively. Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze earned a 53 percent positive evaluation from Tbilisi respondents.
On the other hand, polls show that the perception of disinformation in Georgian media is high, with 68 percent believing that Georgian television stations spread disinformation, which is higher than the percentage (45) believing that Russian stations do.
"The high public distrust in Georgian media to provide accurate, truthful information should be a wake-up call for broadcasters and journalists,” Laura Thornton, NDI senior country director said adding that Georgia needs to tap into strategies to protect and enhance information integrity.
NDI poll results reflect data collected from March 20 to April 4 through face-to-face interviews with a nationwide representative sample of Georgia’s adult population, excluding occupied territories, that included 2,194 completed interviews. The average margin of error is +/- 2.2 percent.