Figure 1: The president's reliance on the security forces in
his exercise of power
All the time - 26%
Often - 25%
Occasionally - 14%
Never - 4%
Not sure, Don't know, Refuse - 31%
Parties benefitting from involvement in the IG
There is substantial uncertainty in the minds of the survey respondents as to how the IG dispensation
has been impacting on political parties, especially on the MDC-T. There is a fairly general agreement
that the MDC-T has been impacting on IG in a positive way. Large proportions of survey respondents –
far out of range of what might be explained by party political support – believe that ‘the MDC-T brought
positive changes to government [Q18B]: 36% ‘strongly agreed’ and a further 37% ‘agreed’. Yet,
uncertainty rules as to how the MDC-T is faring in relation to ZANU-PF, and who has been benefitting in
exactly what way from IG engagement.
Whereas only 15% of respondents believe that the MDC-T was the party that benefitted more
from involvement in the IG, 35% saw ZANU-PF as the party that had best gained from IG
involvement – thus suggesting that ZANU-PF has been emerging with more power than what it
had in the past [Q17].
MDC-T supporters believe that both ZANU-PF and MDC-M had benefitted more than the MDC-T
from involvement in the IG. 12% of the MDC-T supporters thought their own party had
benefitted most, by far; and 7% said that their party had gained most, by a little. In contrast,
37% of respondents thought that ZANU-PF had gained most by far, and another 6% said ZANUPF had gained most, by a little. 13% thought that MDC-M had gained most, by far.
The extent to which the partners have been contributing to improved government performance in
Zimbabwe – in the IG – is bound to impact on citizens’ future party evaluations. With this in mind, the
21
Select target paragraph3
Add to table of contents