Category Archives: Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe – The next SP country?

It is pure speculation on my part, but I wonder whether Zimbabwe will become the next country to adopt semi-presidentialism.

President Mugabe and the leader of the opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai, have signed a memorandum of understanding and have begun two weeks of negotiations about the future of the country. Assuming that an agreement is reached, which can hardly be guaranteed, there is at least the possibility of semi-presidentialism and for two reasons.

The first is that the memorandum explicitly states that one aspect of the negotiations concerns the introduction of a new constitution. Thus, Zimbabwe’s presidential form of government could be about to change.

The second is that there is a history of semi-presidentialism being adopted by presidential countries in crisis. When a strong president is maintained in power, often the concession to the opposition is the creation of the post of prime minister. The opposition then are given this position. Obviously, the situation in Kenya is a clear example. Also, there are other examples where an opposition figure was not appointed as PM, but the creation of the post was a sign that the system would be less presidentialised. Examples include Senegal in 1970 and 1991, Uganda in 2005, Gabon and Cameroon.

So, it is just possible that not only will Zimbabwe manage to stabilise itself and place itself back on the track of democracy, but that it might also do so on the basis of a semi-presidential regime.