Surveys: what are people thinking?
So the news is abuzz with research and survey findings of critical political issues in Zimbabwe. Political parties have commented on the results of these surveys to support or castigate the reports based on how favourable the findings are for their political interest. Politicians, civic society and the media have met to discuss these surveys. Hot and out of the oven, is a survey commissioned by Afrobarometer and conducted by the Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) of their Round 5 Survey in Zimbabwe.
The survey which was conducted by MPOI from the 16th to the 30th of July 2012 randomly selected adult Zimbabwean citizens aged 18+ in the ten provinces of the country. The randomly selected study population was both rural and urban however, it excluded people residing at institutions, police camps and barracks. A total of 2 400 adult Zimbabweans were interviewed in a face-to-face interview using Shona, Ndebele or English as preferred by the respondent. The findings to the first three questions as concluded by MPOI were:
Presidential Term Limits
-A majority of Zimbabweans (74%) want term limits for the president.
-Support for maximum term limits is high in both urban areas (83% in favor) and rural areas, where 69% support this.
-Majorities in all provinces support devolution with Bulawayo Province recording the highest number of this support.
-A huge majority of MDC-T supporters (93%) favor presidential term limits
-Opinion on presidential term limits among Zanu-PF supporters is almost equally split; 48% support the idea while half are opposed.
Citizenship
-A majority of survey respondents are in support of other forms of citizenship except dual citizenship. 72% reject dual citizenship.
-Manicaland province had the highest number of respondents (84%) against dual citizenship while Mat South boasts the highest number of respondents in support of this kind of citizenship in Zimbabwe.
-More Zanu-PF loyalists (76%) reject dual citizenship than the MDC-T supporters (67%).
Devolution of Power
-A majority of Zimbabweans (61%) are in support of devolution
-A significant proportion of survey respondents (21%) could neither agree nor disagree with the concept of devolution
-7 out of 10 provinces want to see a devolved state in Zimbabwe
-The strongest sentiment for devolution was expressed in Bulawayo
In conclusion MPOI says they wait to see if the people’s views found in the survey will be incorporated in the constitution, which is still in the making process.