BREAKING: President signs Constitutional Amendment Act No. 3 into law
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has signed the Constitution of Zimbabwe (Amendment) Act (No. 3), 2026 into law, ushering in one of the most far-reaching constitutional reforms since the adoption of the 2013 Constitution
The legislation, now Act No. 6 of 2026, was enacted after receiving Presidential assent and has officially become part of Zimbabwe’s Constitution.
The preamble to the Act states that national development programmes require “stability and continuity of policies and legislative frameworks within a predictable governance environment, thereby enabling such programmes to be implemented to completion.”
Among its most significant provisions, the Act changes the method of electing the Head of State. The amended Section 92 provides that: “The President must be elected by the members of Parliament in a joint sitting of the Senate and the National Assembly.”
The legislation also extends the constitutional terms of both the President and Parliament from five years to seven years. The amendment replaces the words “five years” with “seven years” in the relevant constitutional provisions governing the President’s tenure, while Parliament’s duration is similarly changed from a “five-year term” to a “seven-year term.”
Other key changes include the transfer of voter registration and custody of the voters’ roll to the Registrar-General, the establishment of a Delimitation Commission, restructuring of the judiciary, amendments affecting the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, abolition of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, and changes to local authority representation.
The signing of the Act concludes the legislative process that saw Parliament pass the Constitutional Amendment Bill (No. 3), making it the Constitution of Zimbabwe (Amendment) Act (No. 3), 2026.
