Composition of the National Assembly The National Assembly is made up of 280 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. 74% of members selected for the National Assembly were either elected for the first time, or did not sit in the previous Parliament. On 3 October 2023, a letter was sent to the Speaker of Parliament by Sengezo Tshabangu, who claimed to be the interim Secretary General of the
Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), stating that fifteen members (nine constituency MPs, five Women's Quota and one Youth Quota) of the National Assembly from the
Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) had ceased to be party members and therefore lost their membership of the National Assembly. The letter contained spelling mistakes, most notably spelling the word 'ceased' as 'seized'. The leader of the CCC,
Nelson Chamisa subsequently wrote to the Speaker to inform him that the CCC did not have an 'interim Secretary General' position within their party and that only he was able to recall members. The Speaker subsequently acted on Tshabangu's letter and declared the seats of the supposedly-recalled MPs vacant on 10 October 2023 and notified the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in line with the Constitution to prepare by-elections for the relevant constituencies. These by-elections were held on
9 December 2023. On 7 November 2023, a further letter was sent to the Speaker of Parliament and the President of the Senate by Tshabangu. In this letter, he recalled a further six constituency MPs and 6 Women's Quota MPs, as well as five Senators. Their seats were declared vacant by the Speaker and President respectively on 14 November 2023. On the same day, the High Court ruled that any further recalls could not be acted upon by Parliament until legal challenges had completed. The Speaker, however, determined that the seats had been vacated when the letter was written - i.e. 7 November - and so remained vacant in spite of the Court order on 14 November.
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 elected during the general election in September 2023. }" |
Women's Quota An additional 60 women members, six from each of the provinces into which Zimbabwe is divided, are elected under a party-list system of proportional representation which is based on the votes cast for candidates representing political parties in each of the provinces in the general election for constituency members in the provinces.
Youth Quota Beginning with the
2023 general election, a further 10 seats are reserved for youth members, that is, persons aged from 21 – 35 years of age, one from each of the provinces into which Zimbabwe is divided, elected under a party-list system of proportional representation which is based on the votes cast for candidates representing political parties in a general election for constituency members in the provinces. == Senate ==