Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed a law on July 7 amending the constitution to extend presidential terms from five to seven years. The amendment, approved by parliament last month, also abolishes the election of the president by popular vote and establishes a parliamentary method for selecting the president.
Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution limited the term of a president to a maximum of two five-year terms, which would require President Mnangagwa to step down in 2028. The new law effectively keeps him in office for an additional two years and postpones the 2028 elections until 2030.
The constitutional amendment followed a resolution in October 2025 by the ruling ZANU PF party. The party said an extension of Mnangagwa’s rule was necessary “to ensure continuity, stability and the sustained transformation of the nation.”
Human Rights Watch documented attacks and arbitrary arrests against civil society groups, opposition political parties, student leaders, and activists opposed to the proposed constitutional amendment.
After assuming power in a military coup in 2017, Mnangagwa was elected president in 2018 and reelected in 2023. He had previously stated that he was a “constitutionalist” who would “abide by the provisions of [the] constitution to the letter.”
Civil society groups raised concerns that the Constitutional Amendment Bill was an attack on the country’s democracy. The Constitutional Defenders Forum mobilized against the bill because it altered protected constitutional structures. Lovemore Madhuku, a prominent lawyer and leader of the National Constitutional Assembly, filed a case at the Constitutional Court to halt the constitutional amendment process. The court dismissed the case on procedural grounds.
The authorities responded to this opposition by intensifying their crackdown on government critics. Police and unidentified armed men have been reported threatening, harassing, and beating up opposition politicians and civil society leaders, including during public consultation meetings about the proposed amendment. The violence at the public hearings effectively denied people their free expression rights and tainted the constitutional amendment process.
International human rights law, as stated in article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, does not mandate the length or number of presidential terms, but it does require citizens to be able to vote for their leaders in genuine periodic elections that reflect the will of the voters. The Mnangagwa administration’s intensified repression of human rights, including during the constitutional amendment process, and the failure to impartially investigate rights violations and ensure accountability for abuses, raises grave concerns about the future of democracy and the rule of law in Zimbabwe.
