‘Do not Trust Exit Polls’ – Nine-Party Opposition Coalition

The nine-party opposition coalition, backing Levan Gachechiladze’s presidential bid, has called on voters not to trust exit polls planned for the January 5 presidential election.

Four television stations – the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB), Rustavi 2 TV, Mze TV and Adjara TV – have jointly commissioned exit polls for the election and plebiscites. 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) have been charged with managing the exit polls.

Tina Khidasheli of the Republican Party, part of the nine-party opposition coalition, said at a press conference on January 3, that there were two reasons why the coalition did not trust the planned exit polls.

The first reason, she said, was that not a single international organization was participating in the process and “not a single international organization is financing these exit polls.” The second reason cited by Khidasheli was that the impartiality of the four organizations managing the exit polls “is questionable.”

“We call on the entire Georgian population not to believe the results of these exit polls, which will be announced by the state-controlled television stations,” Khidasheli said, referring to the four stations, which commissioned the exit polls. “And we also call on the authorities not to turn these exit polls into yet another source of tension.”

Separate exit polls are also planned by Common European Cause. The only information available about this group is that it is apparently a Ukraine-based organization. Representatives of the organization are even refusing to name their local partners, or those who have commissioned them.

Khidasheli said that she had no information about this group, so had no reason to trust their exit polls either. “We are against publishing the results of exit polls in Georgian media sources on January 5, no matter who conducts them,” she added.

In an attempt to allay fears over possible manipulation of exit poll results, the organizers of the exit polls commissioned by the TV stations have invited all election stakeholders to monitor the entire process, including data processing.