Mnangagwa signs law extending terms, changing presidential elections

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has signed into law significant constitutional amendments that extend presidential and parliamentary terms to seven years and fundamentally alter the method of electing future presidents. The Constitution of Zimbabwe (Amendment) Act (No. 3), 2026, also applies these extended terms to the incumbent president and current parliament.

Under the new framework, direct presidential elections are abolished. Future presidents will be elected by a joint session of the National Assembly and Senate, requiring a candidate to secure over half the votes cast by legislators. This replaces the nationwide popular vote established by the 2013 Constitution. The Act also shifts voter registration and voter roll maintenance responsibilities to the Registrar-General, moving them from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), and establishes a Delimitation Commission appointed by the President to oversee electoral boundaries.

Further changes include expanding the Senate and abolishing the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission. These amendments passed with unanimous support from Zanu-PF legislators, despite strong opposition from opposition parties, civil society, and legal experts. Critics contend the reforms undermine democratic accountability and alter core constitutional provisions, particularly by applying the new term lengths to the sitting president and parliament.

The government defends the changes, arguing that longer terms will foster policy continuity and create a stable governance environment conducive to implementing national development programs. The Act explicitly states that "national development programmes benefit from stability and continuity of policies and legislative frameworks within a predictable governance environment, thereby enabling such programmes to be implemented to completion." However, critics question both the substance of the amendments and the retroactive application of the term extensions.

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national development programmes benefit from stability and continuity of policies and legislative frameworks within a predictable governance environment, thereby enabling such programmes to be implemented to completion.