There were 50 "A"-roll constituencies and 15 larger "B"-roll districts, with a complicated mechanism of "cross-voting" allowing "B"-roll voters to slightly influence "A"-roll elections and vice versa.

[3] In protest against the official referendum, the black nationalist National Democratic Party (NDP) ran its own poll, professedly based on "one man, one vote", on 23 July.

This was peacefully operated, but reportedly amateur and potentially biased in its execution, garnering criticism from British officials, rival nationalists and other observers amidst its virtually unanimous rejection of the constitution.

The rival Zimbabwe National Party called the NDP poll "phoney" and said it was designed "to hoodwink the African people".

[5] After the government released the results of the official referendum, the NDP announced that their poll had garnered 467,189 votes against the constitution, and only 584 in favour—a reported majority of about 99.9% against.