Imagine not getting to vote for your president anymore — that’s what Zimbabwe’s parliament is debating right now.

So, here’s what’s going on in Zimbabwe, according to cbinews.tv. Parliament is hashing out a pretty controversial bill that would keep President Emmerson Mnangagwa in office until 2030. That’s an extra two years tacked onto his term.

But that’s not all. The draft law would bin general presidential elections entirely. Instead, parliament itself would get to pick the head of state. And MPs aren’t missing out either — their own terms would stretch from five years to seven.

Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi tabled the bill in the lower house on Tuesday. He reckons the 90-day public consultation went well and that people are broadly behind it.

Opponents aren’t buying it though. They claim the consultation was anything but smooth, with reports of intimidation and violence. Anti-amendment activists were allegedly assaulted by suspected state agents, and some were arrested too.

The fight isn’t just in parliament. Several legal challenges trying to stop or throw out the amendment are now in front of Zimbabwe’s courts.

Political analysts say the bill will likely sail through the lower house anyway. Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF party holds a two-thirds majority there, so the numbers are on his side.

Critics argue this would tighten ZANU-PF’s grip on power. The party’s been running Zimbabwe since independence from Britain back in 1980. Mnangagwa took over in 2017 after a military-backed coup ousted Robert Mugabe, who’d ruled for 30 years.

The 83-year-old president is currently in his second five-year term, having won elections in 2018 and 2023. That’s supposed to be the constitutional limit. His time in office has been dogged by allegations of political repression, crumbling institutions, and a brutal economic crisis.

Source: cbinews.tv

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