HARARE – The opposition MDC T has filed an urgent Constitutional Court application seeking to have the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Act (No. 3) of 2026 declared unconstitutional.
It argues that President Emmerson Mnangagwa was required to put the law to a national referendum before signing it, and failed to do so.
The application, filed at the Constitutional Court in Harare on Thursday, names the President, Parliament, the Justice Minister and the Attorney General as respondents.
MDC president Douglas Togaraseyi Mwonzora deposed the founding affidavit on behalf of the party.
In his affidavit, Mwonzora states that Mnangagwa signed the Constitution of Zimbabwe (Amendment) Bill HB1 into law on 7 July “without subjecting the bill to a referendum first”.
The party contends there was a clear constitutional duty to do so under section 110(2)(f), which places responsibility for calling referendums on the President.
At the core of the challenge is Section 3 of the new Act. It repeals and replaces section 92 of the Constitution to provide that the President is elected by Members of Parliament (MPs) sitting jointly as the Senate and National Assembly, rather than directly by voters.
Under the new provision, a presidential candidate must secure more than half of the valid votes cast. If no candidate achieves a majority in the first round, a run-off is held between the two leading candidates.
The amendment forms part of a wider package of constitutional changes. Section 5 of the Act extends the President’s term of office from five to seven years.
Unusually, the change is said to apply retrospectively to “the continuation in office” of the sitting president, “notwithstanding” the Constitution’s usual bar on amendments affecting serving officeholders.
Section 10 makes an identical seven-year extension for the life of Parliament, again applying it to the sitting National Assembly and Senate.
The Act introduces a raft of further changes. These include empowering the Registrar General, rather than the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, to register voters and compile the voters’ roll.
It also increases the size of the Senate from 80 to 90 seats, with 10 additional senators to be appointed directly by the President.
Mwonzora argues that changing the presidential election model strips ordinary citizens of their right to vote for president a right guaranteed under Section 67(3)(a) to every citizen aged 18 and above. In doing so, he says, the Act amends the Bill of Rights “by implication”.
“What the above means is that the right to vote for president has now been removed from the general populace and is now a preserve of only those Zimbabweans who are members of parliament,” Mwonzora says in the affidavit.
Because the amendment affects the Bill of Rights, the application argues that Section 328(6) of the Constitution required the Bill to be submitted to a referendum before it could be presented for presidential assent.
Mwonzora further submits that President Mnangagwa, as the direct beneficiary of the amendment, found himself approving legislation that entrenches his own grip on office — precisely the conflict of interest Section 328(6) was intended to guard against, he says.
The affidavit also draws a historical contrast, noting that since Zimbabwe created the office of executive president, all qualified voters, not merely sitting MPs, have had the right to elect the head of state.
The new provision, it argues, introduces a “qualified franchise” for the presidency and disenfranchises the general public from that particular election.
The MDC is asking the Constitutional Court to declare that President Mnangagwa failed to meet his constitutional obligations under sections 110(2)(f), 90(1) and 328(6), and to strike down Section 3 of the Amendment Act as invalidly promulgated.
In the alternative, the party seeks an order compelling the President to put the amendment bill to a referendum within three months of its passage by the Senate. The MDC is also seeking costs against the respondents.
Source : ZimLive
