Opposition must heed survey or perish

A recent survey jointly conducted by Mass Public Opinion Institute and Afrobarometer has shown that a majority of Zimbabweans had lost confidence in opposition political parties and shifted allegiance to Zanu-PF.

However, the opposition parties have refused to accept Afrobarometer's latest poll survey where they were forewarned of the impending doom should they fail to urgently address the negative perception the public has over them.

Yet, it is important for the parties that instead of dismissing the survey results as "nonsense" and burying their heads in the sand, the opposition politicians should embrace the contents and act on the recommendations to better their public perception.

The opposition parties in Zimbabwe have enjoyed massive support, for almost a decade, to the extent of even winning the March 2008 harmonised elections although Zanu-PF leader President Robert Mugabe refused to hand over power.

But it is the trend set by the opposition parties that is worrying that each time they are warned of an impending disaster they have refused to accept the results of the poll surveys and labelled them anti-democratic.

In the run-up to the 2013 general elections opposition MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai again contemptuously dismissed the think-tank's survey which predicted his loss to Mugabe. And when the election results were announced, he was left with egg on his face.