Zimbabweans say opposition parties should cooperate with the government once they are defeated

Zimbabwe’s opposition parties should accept defeat, once the election is over, and should cooperate with the government to help it to develop the country, more than two-thirds of the respondents to an Afrobarometer poll said.

The respondents did not see it as a role for the opposition parties to hold the government accountable but that of the citizens.

Only 26 percent felt that opposition parties should monitor and criticise the government in order to hold it accountable.

Zimbabwe has more than 20 political parties on its books, although only two opposition parties are represented in Parliament.

 Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change has disputed every election since it first contested in 2000 and lost by a narrow margin.

It has claimed that either the elections were rigged or stolen and has boycotted all polls since its dismal loss in 2013.

The MDC won the parliamentary elections of 2008 and the first round of the presidential elections but the electoral commission said party leader Morgan Tsvangirai did not poll enough votes for an outright victory.

According to the Afrobarometer poll,  Masvingo, which hosted the annual conference of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front  and is considered one of its strongholds, has the highest number of  citizens, at 40 percent, who think opposition parties must hold the government accountable.

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