92 Election of President and Vice-Presidents(1) The election of a President and two Vice-Presidents must take place within the period specified in section 158.
(2) Every candidate for election as President must nominate two persons to stand for election jointly with him or her as Vice-Presidents, and must designate one of those persons as his or her candidate for first Vice-President and the other as his or her candidate for second Vice-President.
(3) The President and the Vice-Presidents are directly elected jointly by registered voters throughout Zimbabwe, and the procedure for their election is as prescribed in the Electoral Law.
(4) The qualifications for registration as a voter and for voting at an election of a President and Vice-Presidents are set out in the Fourth Schedule.
(5) The election of a President and Vice-Presidents must take place concurrently with every general election of members of Parliament, provincial councils and local authorities.
93 Challenge to presidential election
(1) Subject to this section, any aggrieved candidate may challenge the validity of an election of a President or Vice-President by lodging a petition or application with the Constitutional Court within seven days after the date of the declaration of the results of the election.
(2) The election of a Vice-President may be challenged only on the ground that he or she is or was not qualified for election
(3) The Constitutional Court must hear and determine a petition or application under subsection (1) within fourteen days after the petition or application was lodged, and the court’s decision is final.
(4) In determining a petition or application under subsection (1), the Constitutional Court may––
(a) declare a winner;
(b) invalidate the election, in which case a fresh election must be held within sixty days after the determination; or
(c) make any other order it considers just and appropriate.
(5) If, in a petition or application under subsection (1)—
(a) the Constitutional Court sets aside the election of a President, the election of the President’s two Vice-Presidents is automatically nullified;
(b) the Constitutional Court sets aside the election of either or both Vice-Presidents, the President must without delay appoint a qualified person or qualified persons, as the case may be, to be Vice-President or Vice-Presidents.
94 Assumption of office by President and Vice-Presidents
(1) Persons elected as President and Vice-Presidents assume office when they take, before the Chief Justice or the next most senior judge available, the oaths of President and Vice-President respectively in the forms set out in the Third Schedule, which oaths they must take—
(a) on the ninth day after they are declared to be elected; or
(b) in the event of a challenge to the validity of their election, within forty-eight hours after the Constitutional Court has declared them to be the winners.
(2) The incumbent President continues in office until the assumption of office by the President-elect in terms of subsection (1).
(3) A Vice-President who becomes President on the death, resignation or removal from office of the President assumes office when he or she takes, before the Chief Justice or the next most senior judge available, the oath of President in the form set out in the Third Schedule, which oath he or she must take as soon as possible and in any event within forty-eight hours after the office of President became vacant.
95 Term of office of President and Vice-Presidents
(1) The term of office of the President or a Vice-President commences on the day he or she is sworn in and assumes office in terms of section 94(1)(a) or 94(3), but where there has been a challenge to the election and he or she is sworn in after the Constitutional Court has declared him or her to be the winner, the term of office is deemed to have commenced on the ninth day after polling in the election concerned.
(2) The term of office of the President or a Vice-President extends until—
(a) he or she resigns or is removed from office; or
(b) following an election, he or she is declared to be re-elected or a new President is declared to be elected;
and, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, their terms of office are five years and coterminous with the life of Parliament.
96 Resignation of President or Vice-President
(1) The President may resign his or her office by written notice to the Speaker, who must give public notice of the resignation as soon as it is possible to do so and in any event within twenty-four hours.
(2) A Vice-President may resign his or her office by written notice to the President, who must give public notice of the resignation as soon as it is possible to do so and in any event within twenty-four hours.
97 Removal of President or Vice-President from office
(1) The Senate and the National Assembly, by a joint resolution passed by at least one-half of their total membership, may resolve that the question whether or not the President or a Vice-President should be removed from office for—
(a) serious misconduct;
(b) failure to obey, uphold or defend this Constitution;
(c) wilful violation of this Constitution; or
(d) inability to perform the functions of the office because of physical or mental incapacity;
should be investigated in terms of this section.
(2) Upon the passing of a resolution in terms of subsection (1), the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders must appoint a joint committee of the Senate and the National Assembly consisting of nine members reflecting the political composition of Parliament, to investigate the removal from office of the President or Vice-President, as the case may be.
(3) If—
(a) the joint committee appointed in terms of subsection (2) recommends the removal from office of the President or Vice-President; and
(b) the Senate and the National Assembly, by a joint resolution passed by at least two-thirds of their total membership, may resolve that the President or -Vice-President, as the case may be, should be removed from office;
the President or Vice-President thereupon ceases to hold office.
98 Presidential immunity
(1) While in office, the President is not liable to civil or criminal proceedings in any court for things done or omitted to be done in his or her personal capacity.
(2) Civil or criminal proceedings may be instituted against a former President for things done and omitted to be done before he or she became President or while he or she was President.
(3) The running of prescription in relation to any debt or liability of the President arising before or during his or her term of office is suspended while he or she remains in office.
(4) In any proceedings brought against a former President for anything done or omitted to be done in his or her official capacity while he or she was President, it is a defence for him or her to prove that the thing was done or omitted in good faith.
99 Functions of Vice-Presidents
The Vice-Presidents assist the President in the discharge of his or her functions and perform any other functions, including the administration of any Ministry, department or Act of Parliament, that the President may assign to them.
100 Acting President
(1) Whenever the President is absent from Zimbabwe or is unable to exercise his or her official functions through illness or any other cause, those functions must be assumed and exercised—
(a) by the first Vice-President;
(b) where the first Vice-President is unable to exercise those functions, by the second Vice-President; or
(c) if there is no Vice-President who is able to exercise the functions, by a Minister—
(i) designated for such an eventuality by the President; or
(ii) nominated by the Cabinet, where no Minister has been designated by the President in terms of subparagraph (i).
(2) Except in accordance with a resolution passed by a majority of the total membership of the Cabinet, a person exercising the functions of the office of President in terms of subsection (1) must not exercise the power of the President—
(a) to deploy the Defence Forces;
(b) to enter into any international convention, treaty or agreement;
(c) to appoint or revoke the appointment of a Vice-President, Minister or Deputy Minister; or
(d) to assign or reassign functions to a Vice-President, Minister or Deputy Minister, including, in the case of a Vice-President or Minister, the administration of any Act of Parliament or of any Ministry or department, or to cancel any such assignment of functions.
101 Succession in event of death, resignation or incapacity of President or Vice-President
(1) If the President dies, resigns or is removed from office—
(a) the first Vice-President assumes office as President until the expiry of the former President’s term of office;
(b) the second Vice-President assumes office as first Vice-President until the expiry of the former President’s term of office; and
(c) upon assuming office as President, the former first Vice-President must appoint a qualified person to be second Vice-President until the expiry of the former President’s term of office.
(2) If the first Vice-President dies, resigns or is removed from office—
(a) the second vice-President assumes office as first Vice-President until the expiry of the former first Vice-President’s term of office; and
(b) the President must without delay appoint a qualified person to be second Vice-President until the expiry of the former first Vice-President’s term of office.
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