Exit Polls Planned Despite Protest

Two think-tanks and two academic institutions have confirmed they planned exit polls for the May 21 parliamentary elections, despite the opposition parties’ outcry.

The Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA), Ilia Chavchavadze State University and two think-tanks – the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (CIPDD) and the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS) will coordinate exit polls.

Gigi Tevzadze, a rector of the Ilia Chavchavadze State University, told Civil.Ge on May 15 that talks were underway with four TV networks – the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB), Rustavi 2 TV, Mze TV and Adjara TV (state-funded) – to finance the project.

The same group, with financing of the same networks, conducted exit polls for the January 5 presidential elections, which were condemned by all the opposition groups in the country as falsified.

Last week the nine-party opposition bloc has called on supporters to boycott exist polls. "Say No to exist polls," Levan Gachechiladze, leader of the nine-party bloc said at a meeting with supporters on May 8. "Say no in order not to let them rig election results beforehand."

Opposition politicians say that they would not trust exist polls financed by pro-governmental television stations and organized by the institutions and think-tanks, which, as they say, as loyal to the authorities.

Gigi Tevzadze, however, said that exist polls would be held in a transparent way. "Everyone has a right to express distrust over any issue, but we are inviting everyone to closely monitor how the process [of exit polls] takes place," Tevzadze told Civil.Ge.

Iago Kachkachishvili, a sociologist and professor at the Tbilisi State University, told Tbilisi-based Imedi radio station on May 15, that exist polls would lack authority under the conditions when most of the opposition parties are calling for boycotting the process.