No dominant party, big space for newcomers

The recent survey conducted by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) reveals that there is no dominant political party in the country.

Naturally the situation works in favour of new parties, which want to find their place in the Georgian political spectrum.

The polls have already pushed controversial assessments from various parties, as it says that 27% of voters have not yet decided for whom to vote in the 2016 parliamentary elections.

The survey also reads about one negative tendency - 44% of voters do not intend to take part in the elections at all.

The figure should be noteworthy for the current political players.

Through the polls, if the elections are scheduled for tomorrow, 24% would vote for the Georgian Dream coalition, 16% for the United National Movement, 6 % for nobody, 5 % for the Free Democrats opposition, 4% for the Alliance of Patriots, 3% for the Labour Party and 3% for the rest.

Compared to the previous survey, rating of the coalition is practically halved, while the figure of the United National Movement is increased in 5%. Of course the statistics triggers optimism of the opposition party.

The UNM member Levan Bezhashvili claims that the downfall of the Georgian Dream rating is mainly caused by the irresponsible economic policy pursued by the current Georgian leadership. He states that the UNM has a plan on how to “drag the country out form the economic crisis”.

The Georgian Dream members have already declared distrust to the polls. The outcomes were also unacceptable for the non-parliamentary opposition party Democratic Movement-United Georgia.

The outcomes turned strange for the parliamentary opposition Free Democrats. They claim that in the situation when based on the survey the party leader Irakli Alasania is the second most liked politician, his party should not have so low rating.

Analyst Khatuna Lagazidze believes that the results should be noteworthy both for the majority and the opposition.

“It should be stressed that new prospects are opened for new parties,” lagazidze says.

Fellow analyst Soso Tsiskarishvili offers that the voters do not intend to vote for the current political configuration.

“The outcomes are the signal for the current political forces for them to pay more attention to the public interests rather than various disputes,” Tsiskarishvili says.

The analysts also believe that current attitudes of voters might encourage a multi-party presence in the legislative body, as based on recent situation all parties look weak.