News / National
Electorate doubts police, Zec credibility
23 Jul 2018 at 06:59hrs | Views
THE majority of residents in most of the country's eight provinces still have a negative perception of police and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) and doubt their capacity to professionally manage next week's general elections, NewsDay reported.
The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) in a pre-election survey released in Bulawayo on Saturday, noted that only Harare and Manicaland residents had some modicum of trust in both police and Zec.
The survey also reflected the majority of the population preferred the private media for supply of balanced pre-election reports.
"Among the 10 provinces, Masvingo (48%) and Midlands (40%) rated Zec poorly in terms of their level of engagement in promoting peaceful, free and fair elections. Manicaland (30.8%) and Harare (27.8%) rated Zec extremely well in terms of the level of engagement in promoting peaceful, free and fair elections," the ZCC pre-election survey report read.
The survey, which targeted all provinces, reached out to 2 564 respondents, of which the majority (94%) were registered to vote in the upcoming harmonised elections scheduled for next Monday.
The MDC Alliance has been holding protests in Harare, demanding for electoral reforms and accusing the commission of colluding with the ruling Zanu PF to hand President Emmerson Mnangagwa an easy victory.
In the ZCC report, most people indicated they were well informed about the July 30 elections, with registered voters indicating they will participate in the forthcoming polls.
"Among the key public institutions directly involved in electoral processes, namely Zec, ZRP, State media and the private media: the private media is rated highly (adequately – extremely well) in promoting peaceful, free and fair elections. The State media was rated lowly with 32% rating it to be poorly performing, followed by Zec (26%), ZRP (19%)," part of the report read.
"Survey findings show that the church has done fairly well in promoting peaceful, free and fair elections. The majority (42%) of respondents indicated that the church has done extremely well and others reported that the church did well (38%), adequately (14%) and poorly (6%) respectively."
According to the survey, a majority of the respondents (82,8%) indicated that they were very interested to participate in the upcoming elections, while 12,6% were undecided and 4,6% were not keen at all.
The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) in a pre-election survey released in Bulawayo on Saturday, noted that only Harare and Manicaland residents had some modicum of trust in both police and Zec.
The survey also reflected the majority of the population preferred the private media for supply of balanced pre-election reports.
"Among the 10 provinces, Masvingo (48%) and Midlands (40%) rated Zec poorly in terms of their level of engagement in promoting peaceful, free and fair elections. Manicaland (30.8%) and Harare (27.8%) rated Zec extremely well in terms of the level of engagement in promoting peaceful, free and fair elections," the ZCC pre-election survey report read.
The survey, which targeted all provinces, reached out to 2 564 respondents, of which the majority (94%) were registered to vote in the upcoming harmonised elections scheduled for next Monday.
In the ZCC report, most people indicated they were well informed about the July 30 elections, with registered voters indicating they will participate in the forthcoming polls.
"Among the key public institutions directly involved in electoral processes, namely Zec, ZRP, State media and the private media: the private media is rated highly (adequately – extremely well) in promoting peaceful, free and fair elections. The State media was rated lowly with 32% rating it to be poorly performing, followed by Zec (26%), ZRP (19%)," part of the report read.
"Survey findings show that the church has done fairly well in promoting peaceful, free and fair elections. The majority (42%) of respondents indicated that the church has done extremely well and others reported that the church did well (38%), adequately (14%) and poorly (6%) respectively."
According to the survey, a majority of the respondents (82,8%) indicated that they were very interested to participate in the upcoming elections, while 12,6% were undecided and 4,6% were not keen at all.
Source - newsday
