Georgian ruling party rates high on public support list

Georgia's ruling party, the United National Movement, has raked over half of the support votes cast by respondents during a recent public opinion poll conducted by the Caucasus Resource Research Centers. According to the poll results issued on Friday, 52 percent of the respondents supported the ruling party by answering a question of "which political party would you support if the election polls were conducted tomorrow?" Opposition Christian-Democratic Party had got 5 percent of the support votes while the Labor Party, Free Democrats party and National Forum party each collected 3 percent of the votes. Though the ruling party has not yet proposed anyone for Georgia 's 2013 presidential election, 37 percent of the respondents supported anyone to be nominated from that party. As for potential presidential candidates from the opposition parties, Giorgi Targamadze from the Christian-Democratic Party got 9 percent of the support votes, followed by Irakli Alasania from the Free Democrats party with 5 percent, and Shalva Natelashvili from the Labor Party with 4 percent. The incumbent Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, will have served his two full terms by the 2013 election and will not be able to run again in accordance with the Georgian constitution.