politics these are divisive, politically-polarised issues. These political-statement measures were identified, because the high level of non-declaration of party support was expected.13 The ‘politicalstatement measures are not direct substitutes for declaration of party support, but serve as valuable indicators in the absence of transparency about party support. Trust in political institutions and parties One of the most familiar measures to suggest approximate levels of party support is political trust. The survey assessed the levels of trust in a series of institutions, several of them ‘politically connected’. The set of institutions that respondents were asked to rate in terms of how much they trust these institutions included the three main political parties, as well as the Presidency and the Office of the Prime Minister [Q62] (Table 16): The MDC-T was trusted (‘somewhat’ or ‘a lot’) by 65% of the respondents. ZANU-PF’s equivalent percentage was 36. ZANU-PF is only ‘trusted a lot’ by 16% of the respondents (compared to 32% for the MDC-T). The Office of the Prime Minister (occupied by Morgan Tsvangirai; possible MDC-T support indicator) was trusted (‘somewhat’ or ‘a lot’) by 67% of the respondents. The Presidency (occupied by Robert Mugabe; possible ZANU-PF support indicator) was trusted ‘somewhat’ or ‘a lot’ by 43% of respondents – and not at all or just a little by 47%. Extent of trust A lot Somewhat Just a little Not at all Table 16: Levels of trust in the two main political parties MDC-T (%) 31.5 33.5 10.9 9 ZANU-PF (%) 15.7 20.3 18.7 33.6 Question: ‘In the current Zimbabwe, how much do you trust …?’ Note: Table percentages exclude the irresolute categories Issues of party political polarisation The survey findings help suggest a series of measures (here referred to as statement-measures) that offer further indications of levels of party support in an otherwise obscure landscape of non-declaration. On whether the election should be executed by a government body or by an independent body [Q36]: 16% of respondents opted for a government body, and 77% for an independent body. The 16% corresponds to the declared ZANU-PF support. On the party politically declared portion of the respondents, 90% of MDC-T supporters preferred an independent 13 An anonymous vote question had been considered, but was then ruled out. 48