Zimbabwe conducted two (2) by-elections on 27 April 2024 to fill vacant constituent seats of Mount Pleasant and Harare East. This was in accordance with Statutory Instrument 37A of 2024, Proclamation 1 of 2024. Constituency vacancies occurred following the resignation of Fadzayi Mahere and Allan Markham Rusty who were elected on the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party ticket, during the August 2023 Harmonised Elections. On 20 February 2024, the Speaker of Parliament announced the vacancies. Following the declaration of vacancies, the President of Zimbabwe officially scheduled 26 March for receiving nomination papers from the prospective candidates and 27 April as the election date. Accordingly, March 26 Nomination Court convened in Harare at the Rotten Row Magistrates Court to receive candidates’ nomination papers and a by-election was subsequently held on 27 April.
Harare East and Mount Pleasant are urban constituencies found in Harare Metropolitan Province. Harare East Constituency consists of high, medium and low-density suburbs of Harare. Areas like Tafara, Gletwyn, Borrowdale, and Glen Lorne among others were combined during the 2022/2023 Delimitation Exercise to meet the Constituency threshold. As far as possible communities with the same interest were contained in same wards in line with Section 161 (6) (d) of the Constitution, the delimitation exercise mixed communities with different interests to meet the constitutional voter population threshold for the Harare East, resulting in a mix of communities with different interests in this Constituency.
Mount Pleasant is also primarily a residential constituency, that shares borders with Hatcliffe, Harare East, Harare Central and Harare West Constituencies. The Constituency was created in 2oo8 following the 2007/2008 delimitation exercise and was reconfigured again in the 2022/2023 delimitation exercise.
