Zimbabwe - February 2024

Ruling party wins by-elections after opposition candidates were excluded

In the three months following the August 2023 general election, 27 of the members of the National Assembly (as well as 14 Senators and a number of local councillors) from the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) were fraudulently recalled, triggering by-elections for those seats. The High Court in Harare ruled in December that the recalled members of parliament could not contest the by-elections as CCC candidates, essentially shutting the party out of several of the constituencies. The second set of by-elections was held on 3 February. In these elections, the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) won all six seats, giving the party a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. The CCC’s founding leader, Nelson Chamisa, had already quit the party on 25 January, and the party has weakened further as other politicians have left the party since the by-elections.

Sources: eNews Channel Africa, Africa News (1), The Herald, Africa News (2), All Africa