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President Emmerson Mnangagwa denied rumors that he would seek an unlawful third term in a video released by The Sunday Mail, Zimbabwe’s leading newspaper.
“There is not an iota of evidence where Zanu PF or I, as President, has ever expressed the violation of our Constitution,” the former president, who is 81 years old, remarked.
“We in Zanu PF are very democratic and we obey the Constitution.”
Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Zanu PF, has been in power since its independence.
Much attention has been given to a phrase used at Zanu PF rallies in recent months: ‘2030 vaMnangagwa vanenge vachipo’ (loosely translated as ‘Mnangagwa will still be president’).
Last February, the party won a supermajority in Parliament following controversial by-elections.
This brings it closer to amending the constitution if it so chooses.
Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution restricts presidential terms to two five-year mandates and institutes a constitutional court.
Mnangagwa, a hardline member of the ruling party (Zanu-PF) since independence, became head of state at the culmination of a succession conflict pitting him against Grace Mugabe, the wife of President Robert Mugabe, who was fired in 2017.
