GD: opposition-minded Mtavari TV, IPSOS, local fieldwork company all involved in fabricating of polls

The ruling Georgian Dream party (GD) says that the opposition-minded Mtavari Arkhi, French research company IPSOS, as well as a local company for field works chaired by an opposition  member, ‘have acted in accordance for years’ to fabricate election polls or exit-polls. 

The statement by GD MP Shalva Papuashvili comes on the heels of the ‘decision’ of Mtavari Arkhi head, former United National Movement official, Nika Gvarfamia, to suspend a contract with IPSOS and even sue the company, as the results released by Mtavari Arkhi of the IPSOS Georgian municipal election run-off polls, which was commissioned by the channel, was different from the figures released on the IPSOS webpage. 

Papuashvili says that yesterday the GD informed the public about the discovery it made ‘regarding the falsification’ of pre-election polls by Mtavari Arkhi and IPSOS. 

“As you know, the dissimilar data from Zugdidi exposed the fact that these traces of falsification could not be completely erased and precisely this gave us a hint that falsification had taken place here. Today, you saw the response of Mtavari Arkhi Director General Gvaramia, who is trying to shift the blame alone onto IPSOS,” Papuashvili said. 

He stated that in reality the channel and IPSOS have been in agreement to release fake figures since the time IPSOS entered Georgia. “This falsification has been evident every time, therefore, this is a coordinated action and this attempt by Mtavari Arkhi to shift the blame onto IPSOS is an even greater scandal,” Papuashvili said. 

He reminded the public that in the 2020 parliamentary elections, in the pre-election polls by IPSOS two weeks before the elections, which was commissioned by Mtavari Arkhi, the Georgian Dream should have received 38 percent, while the party received 48.2 percent of the vote.

“ I.e., IPSOS and Mtavari Arkhi gave the Georgian Dream 10.2 percent less in the survey,” Papuashvili stated. 

He stated that according to the IPSOS exit polls of the last year parliamentary race, the Georgian Dream garnered 41 percent, when in reality, the Georgian Dream garnered 48.2 percent of the vote.

“In this case as well, the manipulation amounted to 7.2 percent, which was subtracted by IPSOS and Mtavari Arkhi. Even now, in the run-up to the local self-government elections, when the survey was conducted, the survey showed that the Georgian Dream’s rating amounted to 35 percent according to IPSOS and Mtavari Arkhi, when in reality the Georgian Dream received 46.7 percent – i.e., IPSOS and Mtavari Arkhi gave the Georgian Dream 11.7 percent less,” Papuashvili stated.

Papuashvili noted that IPSOS does not field the surveys itself, but a local Business Consulting Group (BCG). 

“We have discussed this many times – this is a research organization that has ties with Levan Tarkhnishvili who, as you know, is one of the leaders of European Georgia opposition and who was the chairman of the Central Election Commission in 2008, when the parliamentary elections were held and rigged,” Papuashvili stated, reiterating that shifting the blame  onto IPSOS alone  is superfluous, and we are dealing with an obvious manipulation’.