The ruling National Movement Party has support of 44%, followed by the nine-party opposition bloc with 12%, according to the ruling party-commissioned survey conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner (GQR).

Newly set up Christian Democratic Party, led by ex-anchor of Imedi TV, Giorgi Targamadze is third with 11%, followed by Labor Party – 7% and Republican Party - 4%, according to the survey.

5% is needed for a party or a bloc to clear threshold and endorse candidates in the new parliament, where 75 seats out of total 150 will be allocated through the party-list, proportional system.

According to the survey, which was based on face-to-face interviews with 1,200 voters throughout Georgia and conducted between April 14-20, 16% of voters are undecided.

The field work was conducted by the Georgian company ACT Research Ltd. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.8%, according to GQR.

The international polling firm, GQR, notes that the results of the survey reflect the attitudes of the electorate at the time it was conducted, and cannot assess the impact of events since those dates, in particular the announcement by Parliamentary Chairperson, Nino Burjanadze, that she would not run on the ruling party’s list. 

“And it [survey] was completed during a period when the opposition parties largely had not yet begun their electoral campaigns,” GQR said. “These and other events subsequent to April 20 may well alter the various parties’ levels of support prior to the May 21 vote.”

The same polling firm was hired by the Mikheil Saakashvili campaign ahead of the January 5 presidential elections.