Leaders in Zimbabwe and Nicaragua Move to Extend Their Grip on Power

Two governments moved on the same day to entrench executive power. In Zimbabwe, days after President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed a constitutional amendment into law, the ruling party's Harare province began pushing to extend his tenure beyond 2030 to 2037, according to AllAfrica. The effort would keep him in office well past the term limits that governed his earlier mandates.

In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega announced an end to elections in the republic, according to Russian state outlet TASS, pledging to prevent the right-wing opposition from taking power. The move formalizes a concentration of authority that critics have described for years and that the government presents as protecting the country from its opponents.

The two cases are on different continents but share a common mechanism. Incumbents use control of the constitution and the state to remove the electoral check on their tenure, a pattern that recurs where institutions are weak and opposition is fragmented.