The Afrobarometer is an independent, non-partisan research project that measures the social, political, and economic atmosphere in Africa. The project conducted a survey to gauge the public perception of the Constitutional Reform Process during the final stages of COPACs Constitutional Outreach. The report, titled Public Perceptions on Constitutional Reform in Zimbabwe, focused on the perceptions of Zimbabweans on constitutional reform in terms of both the process and the content.

Some of the findings of the survey were that that awareness of the Constitution and associated issues was along the main partisan lines: 81% of those sympathetic to the MDC-T said they had heard about the Constitution compared to 73% of those aligned to ZANU-PF. Non attendance of outreach meetings was higher among MDC-M and ZAPU sympathizers at 67% and 100% respectively. Further, the survey shows that only 3% ZANU-PF sympathizers reported that anyone prevented them from attending an outreach meeting, while 7% of MDC-T sympathizers indicated the same. Popular awareness of the constitution rose with education: 66% among those who had no formal education; 70% among primary school graduates and 84% among those who completed secondary school.

Contrary to general opinion about the Constitutional Reform Process, the report is optimistic, concluding that ‘ the process can still be salvaged in such a way that the final product is a constitution that people want.’

This entry was posted on March 18th, 2011 at 10:01 am by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa and is filed under Governance, Media, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.