Centres of power and shifting power in the IG There are strong convictions that power (still) resides with the President, and that the MDC-T has gained through its participation in IG, but that the President exercises power and does so relying on the security forces. Table 4: Centres of power in the Inclusive Government (IG) Power resides … 2009 (%) Only with the president 27 Mainly with the president 31 In equal shares between the president and prime minister 23 Mainly with the prime minister 8 Only with the prime minister 1 2010 (%) 28 47 11 4 7 Question: ‘In your opinion, where does power reside in Zimbabwe’s Inclusive Government (IG)?’ [Q10] Note: Percentages exclude ‘don’t know’ responses Table 4 shows that 75% observe that executive power in 2010 resided ‘only’ or ‘mainly’ with the President (Robert Mugabe; see first two response options in 2010). This is notably up from the 58% that held this opinion in the 2009 survey. In contrast, the Prime Minister (Morgan Tsvangirai) has consistently been rated as holding top-power by only around 10% of the respondents. Thus whilst more had still believed in 2009 that power-sharing was an equivalent business, more cynicism had emerged by late 2010. Whereas 73% thought that the MDC-T ‘brought positive changes to government’, there was a split in opinion on whether the party had managed to ‘take power from ZANU-PF’ (34% say it had; 32% say it had not). To corroborate, 45% felt that ZANU-PF ‘has not demonstrated willingness to cede power’. This belief is further clarified through 42% stating that through IG involvement ZANU-PF had gained the space ‘to fight for an electoral comeback’. The survey also indicated that Zimbabweans mostly believe that the MDC-T had not been getting ‘too close to ZANU-PF’ in the course of practicing IG [Q18]. Zimbabweans have little illusion as to the extent to which the president in his exercise of power ‘depends on the help of the security forces’. A total of 51% said that the president ‘all the time’ or ‘often’ relies on the security forces [Q11] (Figure 1). 20