Voters flood Constitutional Court to stop MPs from extending own terms 

HARARE — Voters across the country have filed urgent applications in the Constitutional Court seeking to stop their Members of Parliament from voting for the Constitutional Amendment (No. 3) Bill.

The bill, which would extend the term of office for the sitting MPs, councillors and also President Emmerson Mnangagwa by two years from 2028 to 2030, is facing fierce opposition from a cross-section of Zimbabweans including lawyers who say the incumbents cannot benefit unless the law changes are subjected to referendum.

ZimLive understands 67 applications were served on MPs as they left parliament on Tuesday following the first reading of the bill by Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi.

An official from the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change said 30 MPs had been served, suggesting the 37 others were served on Zanu PF lawmakers. Legal sources said all 210 MPs face court action.

In one such application, Tambara Casper, a registered voter in Nyanga North, filed an application against Chido Sanyatwe, the incumbent MP for that constituency, on May 22, 2026. The papers were received by the Constitutional Court on May 27, 2026.

Casper, represented by Coghlan, Welsh & Guest Legal Practitioners, is not seeking to stop the bill outright. Instead, he wants the court to declare that even if the amendment passes, Sanyatwe – as an incumbent MP – cannot lawfully benefit from it and must vacate his seat when the current parliamentary term expires on September 3, 2028.

Sanyatwe is the wife of the retired former commander of the Zimbabwe National Army, Anselem Sanyatwe, an ally of vice president Constantino Chiwenga who is thought to be opposed to an extension of Mnangagwa’s term.

The application targets two provisions of the bill. The first is the proposed extension of the parliamentary term from five to seven years, which includes a “notwithstanding section 328(7)” clause that Casper argues is an unconstitutional attempt to sidestep the constitution’s own amendment safeguards.

The second is the proposed shift to an electoral college system under which the president would no longer be directly elected by voters but chosen by MPs in a joint sitting of parliament.

Casper argues that sections 143 and 158 of the constitution, read together with section 124, are term-limit provisions, and that section 328(7) expressly bars any amendment extending a term from applying to incumbents already holding office. He contends the bill’s “notwithstanding” formula does not neutralise that bar – it amounts to what he calls “amendment by evasion.”

On the presidential election clause, Casper argues the proposed change directly violates his political rights under section 67 of the constitution, stripping him of the right to vote for the country’s head of state and transferring that choice to parliament – including to Sanyatwe herself.

Casper is asking the court for leave to proceed directly to the Constitutional Court without first going through lower courts, arguing the matter is of exceptional public importance and involves pure questions of constitutional law requiring no factual evidence beyond the texts of the constitution and the bill itself.

The strategy of targeting individual MPs through their own constituencies rather than mounting a single omnibus challenge reflects a calculation that flooding the Constitutional Court with parallel applications from voters across Zimbabwe’s 210 constituencies could make it practically impossible for parliament to hold a free vote on the bill before its resolved by the top court.

Meanwhile, Zanu PF which enjoys a sweeping majority in parliament has summoned its MPs for a caucus meeting on Wednesday, according to a notice by its chief whip Pupurai Togarepi.