9th Parliament of Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe's 2018 general election, 210 members of the National Assembly were elected to the National Assembly – one for each parliamentary constituency. The Constitution of Zimbabwe provided for a further 60 female members, representing a women's quota, chosen by proportional representation based on the constituency votes.

As part of the election, a new Senate was also elected. 60 members - six for each of Zimbabwe's 10 provinces - were elected by proportional representation, 16 traditional Chiefs were elected by the Council of Chiefs, while the President and Deputy President of the Council of Chiefs are automatically Senators. The final two seats in the Senate are made up of representatives of persons with disabilities, chosen by the National Disability Board.

The Zimbabwean Parliament comprises the elected National Assembly, the Senate and the President of Zimbabwe. The list of new parliamentarians was published in an Extraordinary edition of the Zimbabwe Government Gazette on 31 August 2018.

The 9th Parliament of Zimbabwe's membership was set by the 30 July 2018 election, which gave the incumbent ruling party, ZANU–PF, a two-thirds parliamentary majority, with control of both the Senate and the National Assembly.^[1] The MDC Alliance, a coalition composed of the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai and other opposition parties, won all but two of the remaining seats in the House.^[1]

Per Section 143 (1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the 9th Parliament will officially begin the day the president-elect is sworn in.^[1] Per Section 145 (1) of the Constitution, the president advises as to the date of the official opening of Parliament, and Section 145 (2) stipulates that the date will be officially set by the Clerk of Parliament.^[1] The official opening of Parliament must not be held more than 30 days after the presidential inauguration.^[1] The inauguration, initially scheduled for 12 August 2018, had to be postponed indefinitely after the MDC Alliance filed a petition with the Constitutional Court challenging the presidential election results.^[2][3] The Parliament cannot open until after the court announces its decision and the president is inaugurated.^[2]

The 9th Parliament was rocked by political in-fighting between the various factions of the MDC. Members were recalled at various points and replaced by rival MDC candidates (see below for more detail). In the midst of this, by-elections were suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic to curb the spread of the virus and protect public health, beginning with an announcement by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on 25 March 2020 that indefinitely halted all electoral activities, including pending by-elections, following President Emmerson Mnangagwa's declaration of COVID-19 as a national disaster under the Civil Protection Act.^[4] This initial measure was supported by the Public Health (COVID-19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment) (National Lockdown) Order, 2020 (Statutory Instrument 83 of 2020), which banned gatherings exceeding 50 people, and was later formalized on 30 September 2020 through Statutory Instrument 225A of 2020, issued by Vice President Constantino Chiwenga as Minister of Health and Child Care under the Public Health Act [CAP. 15:17], amending regulations to explicitly suspend by-elections while COVID-19 remained classified as a formidable epidemic disease.^[5] The suspension, which lasted until its lifting in January 2022 to allow by-elections to resume on 26 March 2022, faced criticism from legal experts, opposition parties, and civil society for allegedly violating constitutional provisions under sections 67 (political rights including regular elections) and 158 (timing of elections, requiring by-elections within 90 days of vacancies), with arguments that it lacked explicit legal authority and disproportionately infringed on democratic rights despite public health justifications.^[6][7]

President Emmerson Mnangagwa opened the first session of the 9th Parliament on 18 September 2018.^[8] The second session was opened by the president on 1 October 2019.^[9][10] The second session closed on 22 October 2020, and the third session opened the same day just before midday.^[11] The third session adjourned on 16 September 2021, and officially ended just before midday on 7 October 2021.^[12] The fourth session of parliament opened that afternoon, marked by President Mnangagwa's State of the Nation address.^[12][13] The fifth session opened on 23 November 2022, an event that marked the first legislative sitting in Zimbabwe's new parliament building in Mount Hampden.^[14] The Parliament was dissolved at midnight on 22 August 2023, ahead of the 2023 Zimbabwean general election.

The National Assembly was made up of 270 members, as well as the presiding officer, known as the Speaker, who is elected at the Assembly's first sitting. A Member of the National Assembly who is elected as Speaker ceases to be a Member of the National Assembly, and the vacant seat must be filled in accordance with the Electoral Law.

The Parliamentary election results were marked by miscalculations, errors in spreadsheet tabulation, as well as a legal dispute between results announced and votes counted. The most notable dispute was that of the constituency of Chegutu West, where 121 votes from one ward were misallocated, leaving the MDC-A candidate, Gift Konjana with 10,828 votes to ZANU-PF candidate Dexter Nduna's 10,932.^[15] When the error was noticed, ZEC claimed that they had already announced ZANU-PF as the winner, and the result could only be reversed with an order of an Electoral Court. The matter ended up in court as Gift Machoka Konjana v Dexter Nduna, though ultimately ZANU-PF's Nduna took the seat in Parliament, in spite of losing the election to Konjana.^[15]

210 members of the National Assembly are elected by secret ballot from the 210 constituencies into which Zimbabwe is divided.^[16] The following members were gazetted as having won seats during the General Election in July 2018.

An additional 60 women members, six from each of the provinces into which Zimbabwe is divided, are elected under a party-list system of proportional representation which is based on the votes cast for candidates representing political parties in each of the provinces in the general election for constituency members in the provinces.^[31]

The Senate is made up of 80 members, as well as the presiding officer, known as the President of the Senate, who is elected at the Senate's first sitting. A Senator who is elected as President of the Senate ceases to be a Senator, and the vacant seat must be filled in accordance with the Electoral Law.

There are 60 provincial seats in the Senate. Six are elected from each of the provinces into which Zimbabwe is divided, under a party-list system of proportional representation which is based on the votes cast for candidates representing political parties in each of the provinces in the general election for Members of the National Assembly. Male and female candidates are listed alternately, with every list being headed by a female candidate.^[33]

Chapter 6, Part 3, §120(b) and (c) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe reserves 16 seats in the Senate for Chiefs, of whom two are elected by the provincial assembly of Chiefs from each of the provinces, other than the metropolitan provinces, and two for the President and Deputy President of the National Council of Chiefs.^[41][42]

Chapter 6, Part 3, §120(d) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe reserves two seats in the Senate for representatives of persons with disabilities.^[43] In terms of paragraph 3(3)(b) of the Seventh Schedule to the Electoral Act [Chapter 2:13], one must be male, the other must be female. These Senators are elected by the National Disability Board.^[44]

A series of political expulsions of elected representatives from the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC Alliance) took place between 2020 and 2022. These recalls were initiated by the rival Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC-T) faction led initially by Thokozani Khupe and later by Douglas Mwonzora, following a Supreme Court ruling that invalidated Nelson Chamisa's leadership of the party. The recalls affected directly elected constituency Members of Parliament (MPs), proportional representation MPs, and senators, leading to numerous by-elections and a significant reduction in opposition strength in Parliament.

The actions were justified under Section 129(1)(k) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, which allows for the recall of parliamentarians who cease to belong to the party under whose banner they were elected. The recalls stemmed from internal party splits and were contested in several court cases, with mixed outcomes.

The recalls began in May 2020, shortly after a landmark Supreme Court judgment on 31 March 2020 (SC 56-20), which declared Nelson Chamisa's ascension to the MDC-T presidency unconstitutional and reinstated Thokozani Khupe as acting president.^[47] This ruling empowered the Khupe/Mwonzora faction to claim authority over MPs and senators elected in the 2018 general election under the MDC Alliance banner, arguing that the Alliance was an electoral pact dominated by the MDC-T.^[48]

The primary reason for the recalls was the allegation that the affected parliamentarians had aligned themselves with Chamisa's faction, effectively ceasing membership in the MDC-T.^[49] This internal schism was exacerbated by the Supreme Court's decision, which nullified leadership changes post-2014 and triggered a wave of expulsions to "rebuild the party with authentic members."^[50]

The impacts were profound: over 20 MPs and multiple senators were recalled, creating vacancies that necessitated by-elections, which had to be delayed until 2022 due to all electoral activities being suspended in light of the COVID 19 pandemic.^[51] These by-elections resulted in gains for ZANU–PF in some seats, further eroding opposition influence in Parliament.^[52] The recalls were criticized as undermining the will of the electorate and described as a "violent onslaught on democracy."^[53] They also strained resources, leading to unnecessary expenditures on by-elections.^[54]

Several court disputes arose. In October 2021, the High Court revoked the recalls of six MPs (Kucaca Phulu, Settlement Chikwinya, Willias Madzimure, Regai Tsunga, Sichelesile Mahlangu, and Tendai Biti) and ordered their reinstatement, ruling that the recalling individual lacked authority as they belonged to a rival PDP faction.^[55] Eight recalled senators challenged their expulsion in July 2020, arguing that the Senate President unlawfully implemented the recall from the MDC-T instead of the MDC Alliance.^[56] Other challenges included a Supreme Court appeal on Senator Lilian Timveos' recall.^[57]