Close race in referendum

The vote in this weekend's referendum on Zimbabwe's draft constitution is likely to be extremely close but the government could scrape a narrow victory, according to a national opinion poll released this week. The Public Opinion Institute, which canvassed over 6,800 people in the country's eight administrative provinces, said 42 percent of respondents said they would vote 'Yes' to the government's draft constitution and 37 percent said they would vote against it. The survey was conducted in the last week of January, the 'Daily News' reported on Friday. Some two-thirds of the respondents were rural-based, but the institute found strong awareness for the referendum with 74 percent of people saying they knew of the draft constitution. However, only 32 percent of those polled felt their views were incorporated in the government's document, while 39 percent said their opinions were not. According to the institute, 53 percent of people said not enough time had been taken to consult Zimbabweans over the contents of the constitution as opposed to 28 percent who said the time was adequate. Greg Linington, a constitutional lawyer at the University of Zimbabwe, said a 'Yes' vote in the weekend plebiscite would not necessarily be an endorsement of the government. "A lot of people are thinking that the draft is not perfect, but it is better than the current constitution and it can be changed later," he told IRIN. But Linington, a former member of the government-appointed constitutional commission, said that given the stringent procedures for amendments to the constitution laid down in the draft, a 'Yes' vote would mean "we are stuck with it." He described the draft as a "violation of the people's will" as it allegedly ignores the sentiments expressed by Zimbabweans during the commission's consultative process on such issues as the powers of the presidency. Brian Raftopoulos of the Institute of Democratic Studies and a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said a government win in the plebiscite would be a "pyrrhic victory". He told IRIN that the manner in which the government handled the draft-making process means "they have lost the moral high-ground."