Zimbabwe prepares Bill to extend presidential terms

Zimbabwe's ruling party is cooking up constitutional changes that would kill off direct presidential votes, stretch terms to seven years, and hand the executive branch near-total control.

The presidential election system gets gutted completely

• Direct public voting for the president would be scrapped under the proposals.
• Parliament would pick the head of state in a joint sitting instead.
• The dominant party controlling the legislature would essentially crown the president automatically.
• Public participation and perceived legitimacy of leadership would take a nosedive.

Term limits and legislative power grabs

• Presidential and parliamentary terms would balloon from five to seven years each.
• The president could appoint 10 extra senators to boost executive sway.
• These handpicked legislators would likely rubber-stamp the executive's agenda without pushback.
• Legislative independence and oversight capacity would get kneecapped by the appointments.

Electoral machinery gets reorganized and centralized

• The voters' roll would shift from the Electoral Commission to the Registrar-General.
• Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi is set to present the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill.
• A separate Delimitation Commission would handle constituency boundary decisions going forward.
• Critics worry the Registrar-General's executive ties will compromise voter registration transparency.

Judicial appointments and military duties face alterations

• Public interviews for judicial appointments would be eliminated from the process.
• Defence Forces would act "in accordance with the Constitution" rather than actively upholding it.
• The Zimbabwe Gender Commission would be dissolved, with its functions absorbed by the Human Rights Commission.
• Removing public scrutiny from judicial picks could politicize the bench, according to critics.