Clear: Zimbabwe's president to stay in office until 2030

TT

Published 18.15

 

President Emmerson Mnangagwa will stay in office for another two years. Archive photo. Photo: Pavel Bednyakov/AP/TT

Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa approved a constitutional amendment on Tuesday that will allow the 83-year-old to stay in power until 2030.

"Signed, sealed and delivered - it is now law," the country's information ministry wrote in a post on X in capital letters.

The country's parliament has previously approved the constitutional amendments, which extend the president's and parliamentarians' terms of office from five to seven years. Direct presidential elections are also being abolished. The right to appoint the president instead falls to parliament.

Critics have described the proposal as a “constitutional coup” that is feared to consolidate the ruling Zanu-PF party’s grip on power.

Mnangagwa has ruled the country since 2017, when the military forced out the authoritarian Robert Mugabe after 37 years in power.