U.S. National Democratic Institute (NDI) released on December 12 part of its commissioned public opinion survey, conducted in second half of November, which shows respondents’ attitudes towards broad range of policy issues. The poll also includes ratings of political parties and this segment of the survey will be released by NDI on December 17.
The survey was fielded by the Caucasus Resource Research Centers (CRRC) for U.S. National Democratic Institute (NDI) on November 14-25 and was funded by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The survey was conducted through nationwide face-to-face interview with 1,947 respondents; it has a margin of error plus, minus 3%.
Attitudes toward democracy have remained statistically the same since NDI’s August poll. Asked whether Georgia is a democracy now, 41% of respondents said yes, compared to 40% who said no. 58% of respondents view Georgia as moving in the right direction (54% in August), while 11% said the country is going in the wrong direction (21% in August).
Respondents were asked about prison abuse scandal, which broke out in September after shocking videos of inmates’ inhuman treatment emerged.
When asked what actions should the newly established government take following the prison scandal, answers were prioritized by respondents as follows: full investigation/investigate members of the former government (mentioned by 47%); prison reform (mentioned by 41%); hold members of the former government criminally accountable (35%); increase monitoring of prison conditions/increased NGO access (24%) and amnesty (12%).
Respondents were also asked about the incident in the village of Nigvziani in western Georgian region of Guria last month, when a small local Muslim community, ethnic Georgians who settled in the village after moving from Adjara region in early 1990s, was prevented by the local Orthodox Christian community to perform religious services in a house, which was converted into the place of worship for the Muslim community.
