Cabinet Resolves To Scrap "USA-Borrowed" Presidential Running Mates Concept

The Cabinet of Zimbabwe has resolved to do away with the concept of Presidential running mates which it said risked creating two centres of power.

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said:

You all remember that it was one of the contentious issues when we had our Constitution and it was deferred for 10 years because it is a borrowed concept from America. It is not even an international best practice where you have a President given executive authority, we do not ordinarily want to create a parallel centre of power.

We believe it is not desirable in our constitutional dispensation to create separate centres of power. We would rather have a President elected by the people and then appoints his team, Vice President and Cabinet; that is the thinking, that is what is practised in Southern Africa and several countries

A running mate is someone who runs for office as part of a pair of candidates. For instance, USA presidential candidates choose a vice presidential running mate to join them on the ticket.

Usually, the term running mate is used for the person in the subordinate position; the person running for president is the candidate, and the person vying for VP is his or her running mate.

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