ZIMBABWE SENATE APPROVES CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT EXTENDING PRESIDENTIAL TERM

Zimbabwe's upper house voted 75-4 on Wednesday to approve constitutional amendments that would extend presidential terms from five to seven years, permitting President Emmerson Mnangagwa to remain in office until 2030. The amendment would also replace direct presidential elections with parliamentary appointment of the president. The lower house passed the bill the previous week, and the government said Mnangagwa is expected to sign it into law next month.

Opposition figures described the changes as a "constitutional coup" that would consolidate power within Mnangagwa's Zanu-PF party, which has governed Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. Makomborero Haruzivishe, spokesperson for the Constitutional Defenders Forum, stated the amendments strip citizens of their right to directly elect the president. Critics drew comparisons to the repression under Robert Mugabe, who ruled for 37 years before resigning in 2017 following a coup that brought Mnangagwa to power. Mnangagwa, 83, won his second term in the 2023 presidential election with 52.6 per cent of the vote, though international observers and opposition figures raised criticisms about that election.

Nick Mangwana, permanent secretary in Zimbabwe's information ministry, rejected characterisations of the amendment as unconstitutional, stating the changes aimed to enhance political stability and policy continuity. Mangwana said the government was not removing presidential term limits but adjusting the electoral cycle to reduce polarising elections. The government framed the constitutional revision as a legitimate legislative process within Zimbabwe's sovereign parliamentary authority.