In a video unveiled by leading Zimbabwean newspaper The Sunday Mail, president Emmerson Mnangagwa dismissed allegations he would run for an unconstitutional third term.
Zimbabwe: I have no intention to run for a third term - President Mnangagwa
“There is not an iota of evidence where Zanu PF or I, as President, has ever expressed the violation of our Constitution,” the 81-year-old said .
“We in Zanu PF are very democratic and we obey the Constitution.” Zanu PF, the ruling party has reigned over Zimbabwe since independence.
Much attention has been drawn to a slogan heard at Zanu PF rallies in recent months ‘2030 vaMnangagwa vanenge vachipo’ (loosely translated as ‘2030 Mnangagwa will still be president’).
The party secured a supermajority in Parliament last February in disputed by-elections.
This left it closer to changing the constitution if it wishes.
Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution limits the presidential term of office to two five-year mandates and establishes a constitutional court. A supporter of a hard line and heavyweight of the party in power (Zanu-PF) since independence, Mnangagwa became head of state at the end of a war of succession which opposed him to Grace Mugabe, the wife of president Robert Mugabe who was dismissed in 2017.