The political framework of Zimbabwe

Political Outline

Current Political Leaders: President: Emmerson Mnangagwa (since 24 November 2017)
Vice President: Constantino Chiwenga (since 28 December 2017)
Second Vice-President: Vaccant (since March 1st 2021)
Next Election Dates: General elections: 2023
Main Political Parties: Zimbabwe has a multi-party system, though a handful of larger parties typically dominate politics. The main political parties in the country include:
- The African National Union of Zimbabwe - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF): left, ruling party, nationalist and populist, heir to the liberation movements that fought the apartheid regime of Ian Smith, led by Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa
- The Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC Alliance): centre-left, main opposition party, heir to the ZCTU trade union confederation, supported by the urban middle class, led by Nelson Chamisa
- The National Patriotic Front (NPF) (leader: Ambrose Mutinhiri)
Executive Power: Executive power is held by the President, the head of state and head of government, who is elected for a five-year term. The President appoints the members of his Cabinet. The President is elected by direct universal suffrage and is assisted by a Vice-President. Under the new constitution, adopted after the presidential elections of 2013, the post of Prime Minister has been abolished.
Legislative Power: The legislative power is vested in a bicameral parliament consisting of a Senate (80 seats - 60 members elected by popular vote for a five-year term, 18 traditional chiefs elected by the Council of Chiefs, and 2 seats for people with disabilities) and an Assembly (270 seats - 210 members elected by popular vote for a five-year term to represent single-member constituencies and 60 seats reserved for women, who are elected by proportional representation in 10 six-seat constituencies).

Indicator of Freedom of the Press

The world rankings, published annually, measures violations of press freedom worldwide. It reflects the degree of freedom enjoyed by journalists, the media and digital citizens of each country and the means used by states to respect and uphold this freedom. Finally, a note and a position are assigned to each country. To compile this index, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) prepared a questionnaire incorporating the main criteria (44 in total) to assess the situation of press freedom in a given country. This questionnaire was sent to partner organisations,150 RWB correspondents, journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists. It includes every kind of direct attacks against journalists and digital citizens (murders, imprisonment, assault, threats, etc.) or against the media (censorship, confiscation, searches and harassment etc.).

World Rank:: 130/180

Indicator of Political Freedom

Definition

Definition:

The Indicator of Political Freedom provides an annual evaluation of the state of freedom in a country as experienced by individuals. The survey measures freedom according to two broad categories: political rights and civil liberties. The ratings process is based on a checklist of 10 political rights questions (on Electoral Process, Political Pluralism and Participation, Functioning of Government) and 15 civil liberties questions (on Freedom of Expression, Belief, Associational and Organizational Rights, Rule of Law, Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights). Scores are awarded to each of these questions on a scale of 0 to 4, where a score of 0 represents the smallest degree and 4 the greatest degree of rights or liberties present. The total score awarded to the political rights and civil liberties checklist determines the political rights and civil liberties rating. Each rating of 1 through 7, with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of freedom, corresponds to a range of total scores.

Ranking:: Partly Free
Political Freedom:: 6/7

Political freedom in the world (interactive map)
Source: Freedom in the World Report, Freedom House

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