Opposition parties are the least trusted institutions in Africa according to the latest survey released by a continental research organisation, Afrobarometer.
Ironically, religious leaders are the most trusted, followed by the army and then traditional leaders.
The survey, released today, covered 36 countries including Zimbabwe.
“In the public mind, the most trustworthy institutions are religious leaders (72%) and the national army (64%). On average, the least trusted institutions are the tax authorities (44%) and opposition political parties (36%),” the survey says.
“This pattern of public opinion is cross-nationally consistent: Institutions rank in the same order in almost every country surveyed. Across institutions, however, the range of responses is considerable; the most trusted institution attracts twice as much popular confidence as the least trusted institution.”
The survey showed that Africans had far more confidence in informal institutions such as religious leaders such as priests, pastors, and imams and traditional leaders like chiefs, elders, and headmen than in the formal institutions of the state.
“As such, people are telling us that they are more likely to use informal than formal channels in addressing felt needs. Second, among state institutions, popular trust is more forthcoming for agencies of the executive branch (presidency, army, and police, even including the tax department) than for the legislative branch (National Assembly and local government councils), which supposedly represents the citizenry.
“This result raises the question of whether popular trust – at least to a degree – is blindly and uncritically granted. After all, citizens usually have fewer channels of information about, and recourse against, appointed officials in the executive branch than elected legislators, whom they can vote out of office.
“Third, we note that African citizens have the lowest levels of institutional trust in the electoral sector, which here contains the electoral commission and the political parties that contest elections. On average, in a setting where two-thirds of the adult population trust informal institutions, fewer than half of all Africans interviewed express trust in electoral institutions.
“There is a paradox here. Of all the requirements of a functioning democracy (including the rule of law, legislative oversight of the executive, civilian control of the military, a vibrant civil society), elections are probably the most broadly and deeply institutionalized elements in Africa. And yet citizens seem to be saying they have least confidence in this sector, at least when they compare electoral institutions to a political regime in which decisions are made by informal elites or state executives.”
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