Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai in the context of "ZANU–PF"

The Constitution of Zimbabwe is the supreme law of Zimbabwe. The independence constitution of 1980 was the result of the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement and is sometimes called the Lancaster Constitution. A proposed constitution, drafted by a constitutional convention, was defeated by a constitutional referendum during 2000.

In practice, the 2008 power-sharing deal provided the structure for much of the government. The three political parties in Zimbabwe, ZANU-PF, MDC-T and MDC-N negotiated a new proposed constitution after a constitutional outreach program.

The Government of National Unity refers to Zimbabwe's coalition government that was formed on 13 February 2009 following the inaugurations of Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister and Thokozani Khuphe and Arthur Mutambara as Deputy Prime Ministers. It is a coalition organized among President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front, Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, and Mutambara's MDC, as agreed to during recent negotiations.

Following the deal's signing, a "sticking point" for the implementation of the agreements in the fourth quarter 2008 was the allocation of Cabinet positions between the two MDC factions and ZANU-PF, particularly the Home Affairs Ministry. It stopped the negotiations' progress until late January 2009, when the MDC-T agreed to share the Ministerial portfolio with ZANU-PF on a rotating basis, as advised by the Southern African Development Community.

General elections were held in Zimbabwe on 30 July 2018 to elect the President and members of both houses of Parliament. Held eight months after the 2017 coup d'état, the election was the first since independence in which former President Robert Mugabe was not a candidate.

ZANU–PF, the country's ruling party, went into the election with majorities in both the National Assembly and the Senate. The main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai, contested the election as part of the MDC Alliance, a coalition that included the MDC–T and six smaller parties. The election gave ZANU–PF control of both houses in the 9th Parliament of Zimbabwe, though with reduced majorities in each. The MDC Alliance gained seats in both houses, closely corresponding to ZANU–PF's losses.