In contrast with the general association of elections with freedoms and democratic rights, elections in Zimbabwe have a close-to-umbilical cord with violence and intimidation, and concomitant coercion and often either fearful participation – or abstention. An overwhelming majority of respondents, 76%, felt that ‘each time there is an election, there is intimidation and violence’ [Q47D]. Violence and intimidation is by far not yet history in Zimbabwe. A vast 58% report that in the period 2008-10 there had been incidents of violence and intimidation in their communities [Q50]. There are widespread expectations that electoral violence will continue and that 2011 elections will be afflicted. There will not be ‘nothing to fear’ [Q54B]. For example, it is expected that opposition parties will campaign in fear [Q54A], and that fear of violence and intimidation could make many Zimbabweans abstain on the next Election Day. The Zimbabweans in this survey also note that violence and intimidation will affect ‘the vote’ (the party that is supported on the ballot). 6.6 Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and readiness Three main trends characterised the survey’s response to ZEC: There are split opinions and uncertainty on whether ZEC is ready to conduct elections or not [Q61B]. Zimbabweans have little confidence in the administrative power of ZEC [Q61C]. A strong belief prevails that ZEC will not be treating all participating parties equally [Q61D]. These assessments of ZEC are anchored in Zimbabweans’ preceding experiences of the (insufficient and biased) ways in which previous elections had been conducted. Zimbabweans find it difficult to step away from these memories, and have not yet seen sufficient evidence that a new reality is emerging. ZEC’s credibility and readiness ZEC enjoys a low level of credibility, a trend that was repeated over several questions [Q61A-F]. These opinions were expressed by the 59% of respondents who reported that they had heard of ZEC. Confidence in ZEC’s administrative capacity is very low [Q61C]. Only 13% reported that they had confidence in this capacity. Half of the 59% who had heard of ZEC stated outright that they did not believe that ZEC has this capacity. ‘Bias towards ZANU-PF’ in previous elections was the overriding motivation for the lack of confidence in ZEC’s administrative capacity. The sentiment was simply ‘ZEC has failed us before’. 56