Transparency International Georgia launched a new website www.chemikhma.ge [1] to help Georgian citizens determine which mayoral candidate they should side with in the upcoming Tbilisi Mayor elections.
By answering 20 public policy questions online, the website users will be able to find how their political positions match each candidate. Before developing the website, we sent all twenty questions to the candidates and requested their official answers. The website includes answers from 6 mayoral candidates1:
Aleksandre Elisashvili - Initiative Group
Giorgi Vashadze - Electoral Bloc “Giorgi Vashadze - United New Georgia”
Kakha Kukava - Electoral Bloc “Dimitri Lortkipanidze, Kakha Kukava Democratic Movement - Free Georgia”
Zaal Udumashvili - Electoral Bloc “United National Movement”
Tengiz Shergelashvili - Development Movement
Elene Koshtaria - Electoral Bloc - “Bakradze, Ugulava - European Georgia”
Voters have the ability to fill out the identical questionnaire and find out which mayoral candidate is closest to them from an ideological standpoint. After filling out the questionnaire, the site shows the matching percentage with mayoral candidates
The matching percentage is calculated as following: if the user’s answers and the mayoral candidate’s answer are identical, then there is a 100% match. If the answers are not identical but similar, then there is a 75% match. If the answers are cardinally different from each other, then there is a 0% match.
When all 20 questions are filled out, the matching percentage is calculated for the whole questionnaire and the matching percentage is given for all mayoral candidates
1. The questionnaire was also sent to three mayoral candidates who declined to provide us with the answers: Irma Inashvili, Kakha Kaladze and Giorgi Gugava