By Staff Reporter

A SURVEY has revealed that 58 percent of Zimbabweans do not believe President Emmerson Mnangagwa in his pledges to deliver free and fair elections in the country.

The survey, whose outcome was launched in Mutare this past week, was conducted by the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) and focused on the country’s state of preparedness to hold a flawless poll this July 30.

Since becoming State leader via a military assisted coup November last year, President Mnangagwa has pledged a strong departure from his predecessor Robert Mugabe’s bully tactics against opponents during elections.

While he continues with his charm offensive, it has emerged that 58 percent of locals, in fact, did not buy into his promises to see through free and fair elections.

In its report, ZCC urged the President to take tangible steps to buttress his pronouncements.

Speaking during the survey presentation, ZCC advocacy and governance assistant officer, Rugare Kozanai said 58 percent of Zimbabweans sampled doubted the President’s pledges to deliver a clean plebiscite.

Walk the talk

“In as much as this commendable to make such proclamations only 42℅ believed in those statements.

“As ZCC, we urge our President to walk the talk in as much as he is making his proclamations. I believe the only way to win this 58℅ is to walk the talk through tangible action,” said Kozanai.

He added: “The more the president acts upon his word, the more he wins the hearts of more people to believe what he says.”

On poll observers, Kozanai said they discovered that a paltry 25% of locals trusted African Union (AU) teams while 75% placed their confidence on European Union and United Nations (UN) observers.

“It’s commendable that our President has allowed EU and UN observers to come. More people will have confidence in the polls because they trust these observer missions,” he said.

Kozanai said it was most likely locals have lost faith in AU observer teams because of their previous relationship with former President Robert Mugabe’s administration.

“People believe AU did not give fair evaluation of past polls held in the country,” said Kozanai.