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.
Overview 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. 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.
Per Section 143 (1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the 9th Parliament will officially begin the day the president-elect is sworn in. 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. The official opening of Parliament must not be held more than 30 days after the presidential inauguration. 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. The Parliament cannot open until after the court announces its decision and the president is inaugurated.
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. 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. 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.
Sessions President Emmerson Mnangagwa opened the first session of the 9th Parliament on 18 September 2018. The second session was opened by the president on 1 October 2019. The second session closed on 22 October 2020, and the third session opened the same day just before midday. The third session adjourned on 16 September 2021, and officially ended just before midday on 7 October 2021. The fourth session of parliament opened that afternoon, marked by President Mnangagwa's State of the Nation address. 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. The Parliament was dissolved at midnight on 22 August 2023, ahead of the 2023 Zimbabwean general election.
National Assembly Composition of the National Assembly 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. 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.
Members Elected in July 2018 At dissolution in August 2023 Constituency Maps Assembly composition Party Common Women Total Common Women Total Change 145 35 180 147 35 182 2 63 24 87 43 15 58 29 0 1 1 0 10 10 9 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 19 0 19 19 Total 210 60 270 210 60 270Vacant 0 0 0 0 0 0 Speaker 1 1 Government majority 90 94 4
Elected Constituency Members 210 members of the National Assembly are elected by secret ballot from the 210 constituencies into which Zimbabwe is divided. The following members were gazetted as having won seats during the General Election in July 2018.