The Rural-Urban Divide Between Zimbabwean Voters

Abstract: Sub-Saharan African voters have long been regarded to be predominantly influenced by ethnicity when casting their ballots. New research in the field of African voting behaviour has established, to the contrary, that rural and urban contexts play a pivotal role in influencing voters. This research investigates the case of Zimbabwe. It researches the differences between contextual factors in rural and urban areas, also referred to as the neighbourhood effect, and how these factors affect electoral outcomes. It finds that local authorities loyal to the ruling party are highly trusted by rural dwellers, enabling them to exert influence over rural dwellers’ votes. Trusting traditional leaders is found to have a statistically significant correlation with voting for the ruling party. Furthermore, it finds that rural dwellers live in areas in which access to news is limited, making voting based on the performance of politicians nearly impossible. Across both rural and urban spaces, political campaign strategies are found to include intimidation, threats and violence. The general political climate is found to be repressive and limiting independent choice for both rural and urban citizens. The findings of this work reflect that – in Zimbabwe – contextual factors have a strong bearing on voting behaviour.