Zimbabwe’s biggest indigenous church umbrella body has openly backed some of the most controversial clauses in the Constitutional Amendment No. 3 Bill, including extending presidential terms to seven years and replacing direct presidential elections with a parliamentary system.
In a submission presented to Parliament, the Zimbabwe Indigenous Interdenominational Council of Churches argued that Zimbabwe’s current five-year electoral cycle has undermined long-term development and intensified political instability.
“The extension of the presidential election cycle from five to seven years… [is] the necessary constitutional response to this developmental reality,” the churches said.
The churches linked the proposed seven-year terms to both governance and biblical principles, saying the number seven symbolises restoration and completion.
“We see seven years not as an arbitrary number. It is the governance space required to plan, absorb disruption, recover, and complete programmes of the scale and ambition that Vision 2030 and NDS2 represent,” the statement read.
In one of the most politically explosive sections of the document, the churches endorsed Clause 3 of the Bill, which would abolish direct presidential elections and allow Parliament to elect the President instead.
“A parliamentary election of the President reduces the intensity of every polling day for the ordinary Zimbabwean,” the churches argued. “As churches that have ministered in communities affected by the cycles of perennial electoral tension, we affirm this reform not merely as a constitutional preference but as a pastoral necessity.”
The submission also strongly defended the transfer of voter registration from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to the Registrar-General’s Office.
“It is administratively coherent and practically sound that the same office which holds the identity records of every citizen should also hold responsibility for registering that citizen to vote,” the churches stated.
ZIICC chairman Rev Dr Andrew Wutawunashe, in a separate cover letter to Parliament, said the churches were offering “full and unconditional support” for the Bill.
The church body said it represents over 8.7 million Zimbabweans across Apostolic, Pentecostal and Evangelical denominations, giving its endorsement significant political weight ahead of Parliamentary deliberations on the Bill.