ZIMBABWE’s cabinet backed draft legislation that would change the constitution to extend presidential terms from five years to seven, allowing President Emmerson Mnangagwa to stay in office until 2030.
Other proposed changes in the bill presented to the cabinet on Tuesday include a provision that the president be elected by parliament rather than through a direct popular vote.
Others include allowing the president to appoint 10 more senators, boosting the Senate to 90 seats.
Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi told a news conference the bill will be sent to the speaker of parliament and published in an official gazette before lawmakers consider it.
A cabinet statement said the amendments passed would “enhance political stability and policy continuity to allow development programmes to be implemented to completion”.
Mnangagwa, 83, is currently meant to step down in 2028 after serving two five-year terms, and there has been a succession battle in the governing ZANU-PF party over who will take over.
He came to power after the military ousted longtime leader Robert Mugabe in 2017, and opposition politicians have condemned moves by his party to extend his time in office.
The governing party’s “2030 agenda” had been on the cards for months before it was announced as the party position, prompting opposition figures to pledge to “defend the constitution against its capture”.
Jameson Timba, a senior leader in the Southern African country’s fractured opposition movement, said the cabinet’s approval of the changes is “politically destabilising”.
He said in a statement that a group called Defend the Constitution Platform would immediately consult lawyers and brief regional and international partners as part of efforts to oppose the changes.
ZANU-PF has governed Zimbabwe since independence from the United Kingdom in 1980.
It has a two-thirds majority in the lower house of parliament and also overwhelmingly controls the upper house through traditional leaders and other proxies who generally vote with it, allowing it to change the constitution.
Analysts and opposition figures have said any constitutional changes would also need to be put to a national referendum.
“Any amendment which has the ‘effect’ of extending an incumbent’s tenure should be subjected to a referendum,” said opposition politician David Coltart. “They know that if that happens, they will fail, so they will do all in their power to prevent a referendum from happening.”
Elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2023, Mnangagwa has been accused of allowing rampant corruption and of suppressing human rights, while Zimbabweans endure hardship despite a growing economy.
Attempts over the past months to demonstrate against the plan to keep him in office met a police crackdown that put many people in jail.