Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF wants to extend president's term by two years

By Nyasha Chingono

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party wants to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa's term in office by two years until 2030, a party spokesman said on Tuesday.

He gave no details of how this could be achieved or whether constitutional changes would be sought to enable the 82-year-old Zanu-PF leader to stay on.

Zimbabwe's constitution limits the presidential office to two five-year terms, and Mnangagwa's second and final term as president expires in 2028.

"The issue of the president staying in power is a party position which has been agreed upon," the party's director of information, Farai Marapira, told Reuters by telephone.

Asked whether that meant changing the constitution to extend presidential terms to seven years, he replied: "The modalities have not been decided."

For much of its history since independence in 1980, Zimbabwe was led by the late Robert Mugabe who was prime minister from 1980 until he was elected president in December 1987, a post he held until November 2017.

Mugabe openly believed in a one-party state and used violence and intimidation to prevent anyone challenging his monopoly on power at the ballot box.

In 2013, Mugabe signed a new constitution into law limiting presidents to two five-year terms. It did not apply retroactively, and Mugabe would have been able to stay in power for a further 10 years were it not for the 2017 coup that replaced him with his then deputy, Mnangagwa.

Mugabe died two years later.

EXTENDED TERM LIMITS MOOTED AT CONFERENCE

Mnangagwa, a former spy chief, has said publicly that he will leave when his term expires, but the idea of Zimbabwe scrapping term limits was mooted at a Zanu-PF conference last October.

Constitutional lawyer Welshman Ncube said that in theory any constitutional change could not apply to the incumbent.

"Mnangagwa will have to subject himself to two referendums, one to scrap the term limits and another to remove the provision that an incumbent cannot benefit from any amendments," he told Reuters.

Another constitutional lawyer, Lovemore Madhuku, said it was not possible for Mnangagwa to stay in power legally beyond 2028 as "no one that has the power to extend the president's term of office".

Since 1990, 24 African governments have sought to extend their president's rule beyond existing constitutional limits, usually by scrapping the two-term ceiling, and with all but four of them successful, according to a 2023 paper in Scientific Research Publishing.

(Reporting by Nyasha Chingono, Editing by Tim Cocks and Timothy Heritage)