LEGAL think-tank Veritas has warned that seven-year terms for executive presidents have become rare globally and are often associated with authoritarian systems.
The legislative watchdog made the comments in an analysis of the proposed constitutional changes under Constitutional Watch 1 of 2026.
Veritas said allowing the extension to apply to the incumbent President would violate constitutional safeguards designed to prevent sitting office holders from benefiting from amendments that lengthen term limits.
It also argued that extending presidential terms risks undermining democratic governance and can fuel complacency and corruption in government.
“Experience has shown that persons in government become more complacent the longer they remain in office, so their efficiency decreases and corruption tends to increase,” Veritas said.
Clause 4 of the Bill proposes extending presidential terms by two years from five years to seven years and seeks to apply the change to the current PSresident’s tenure.
However, Veritas said the proposal was in conflict with section 328(7) of the Constitution, which states that a constitutional amendment extending the length of time a person may hold office cannot apply to anyone who has held or is currently holding that office.
According to the think-tank, if the extension is meant to benefit the current President, it would require amending or overriding the constitutional provision through a national referendum after being passed by Parliament.
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“It has been suggested that the Bill will merely elongate the electoral cycle, but this ignores the fact that the Bill will lengthen the period the current President may remain in office,” Veritas said.
“If it does that, it will override section 328(7) — in other words it will amend the section — and so has to be put to a referendum.”
The legal watchdog further warned that extending terms can weaken governance standards.
Proponents of the Constitutional Amendment Bill No 3 argue that term extension eradicates toxicity in politics.
However, Veritas dismissed the reasoning as unconvincing.
“If a government fails to carry out its projects in five years it should go back to the voters and justify its failure, so that the voters can either renew its mandate or give another party a chance to do better,” the organisation said.
The proposed amendments also seek to remove some electoral functions from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), including voter registration, maintenance of the voters’ roll and the delimitation of electoral boundaries.
Under clause 2 of the Bill, the responsibility for registering voters and compiling and maintaining voters’ rolls would be transferred to the Registrar-General’s Office.
"This makes some administrative sense. The Registrar-General keeps registers of births and deaths, and is in a better position than Zec to register citizens as voters,” Veritas said.
“On the other hand, voters' rolls were not properly maintained between 1980 and 2013, when the Registrar-General was responsible for them, and there is a fear that they will not be maintained any better now.
