Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU PF has resolved that President Emmerson Mnangagwa should be its sole candidate for party president at a 2029 congress, as constitutional changes shift selection of the national president to Parliament.
The resolution adopted at ZANU PF’s 23rd National People’s Conference calls for Mnangagwa to be the only candidate for party president at the eighth National People’s Congress. It also calls for the party’s leadership-term rules to align with the national Constitution. The congress is scheduled for 2029.
That party leadership decision does not name ZANU PF’s candidate for Zimbabwe’s national presidency in 2030. The Constitution’s two-term rule makes eligibility for national office a separate question that the party resolution does not resolve.
A constitutional amendment signed by Mnangagwa in July and gazetted July 7 extended presidential and parliamentary terms from five years to seven. The change moved the next general election from 2028 to 2030. After that election, Parliament will elect the president, replacing a direct presidential vote by voters.
The amendment is also the subject of a court challenge. The Herald reported that Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court heard arguments on Sept. 22 over whether war veterans could bring their challenge directly before the court. On Sept. 23, the newspaper reported that the court had reserved judgment on that access question; the report did not describe a ruling on the amendment’s constitutionality.
