HRF is alarmed by the Zimbabwean cabinetтАЩs approval this week of draft constitutional amendments that would effectively extend dictator Emmerson MnangagwaтАЩs term and end direct presidential elections. This is a coup in motion against the Zimbabwean peopleтАЩs right to choose their leaders. The amendment process is led by a regime that rules with a mandate gained by force and that lacks genuine popular legitimacy.
A constitutional amendment would extend presidential and parliamentary terms from five to seven years. This would enable Mnangagwa, who is serving a second term and is required by the current constitution to step down in 2028, and the ruling ZANU-PF, which holds a two-thirds majority in parliament, to remain in power until at least 2030. Another amendment would end universal suffrage for choosing the president, transferring that power to lawmakers.
Both Mnangagwa тАФ who seized power in a 2017 coup тАФ and the ZANU-PF-dominated legislature are serving mandates which are the outcomes of contested elections in 2023 that were neither free nor fair, marked by manipulation and violent intimidation of the opposition.
