Tsvangirai popularity nosedives, Afrobarometer declares

THE popularity of MDC-T's Mr Morgan Tsvangirai has fallen significantly over the past 15 years from a high of 57 percent to 16 percent this year, an authoritative think tank, Afrobarometer, has said.

As Mr Tsvangirai continues to fall, President Mugabe is rising.

In its latest report, Afrobarometer noted that President Mugabe remained popular especially in the rural areas. The middle aged and Zimbabweans with humble educational background also support the veteran leader.

At least 39 percent of the respondents said they would vote for Mr Tsvangirai in 2005 with the number rising to 57 percent in 2009 before it nosedived to a low of 16 percent in 2017.

Afrobarometer said 29 percent of the people it interviewed in 2005 pledged their support for President Mugabe.The figure has risen to 38 percent this year.

In its survey, Afrobarometer asked people who they would vote for if presidential elections were held tomorrow and they rooted for President Mugabe.

"Survey shows that Zanu-PF has an edge if presidential elections were to be held tomorrow. Asked which party's candidate one would vote for in a hypothetical presidential elections, a day after the survey, 38 percent said Zanu-PF, 24 percent refused to answer, 16 percent said MDC-T, 11 percent said they would not vote and four percent said they would vote for a ZimPF candidate (before the split) and two percent said they would vote for other parties," read the report for the month of May 2017.

"Survey shows that Zanu-PF still commands support in the rural areas while a plurality (31 percent) of those who refused to answer are urban based."
The research also showed that President Mugabe still remained popular.

"President Mugabe continues to get positive ratings from Zimbabweans with more than half saying that they approve of the way he has performed his job over the past twelve months," read the report's findings.

President Mugabe got an average approval rating of at least 56 percent from all the ten provinces against a disapproval of 34 percent.

Masvingo was the highest with 74 percent approval against a 14 percent disapproval.

At least 54 percent of respondents aged above 51 years said they would vote for Zanu-PF, a paltry 11 percent indicated they would vote for the MDC-T while 38 percent of those between 36 and 50 years said they would vote for Zanu-PF.

At least 20 percent of that age preferred the MDC-T.

Of those aged between 18 and 35 years old, 32 percent said they would vote for Zanu-PF while 16 percent responded that they would vote for MDC-T.
Others refused to give a response.

According to the report, at least 61 percent of respondents with no formal education indicated that they would vote for Zanu-PF.

Five percent said they would vote for the MDC-T.

At least 55 percent with primary school level said they would vote for Zanu-PF while 10 percent said they would vote for the MDC-T.

The pro-poor policies of President Mugabe and Zanu-PF continue to endear him and the party to the majority of the people. The President has continued to champion the interests of the people through various programmes, such as Land Reform, Indigenisation, Presidential Inputs Scheme and Command Agriculture among many others.