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.

On 22 November 2017, a ZANU–PF spokesman said that Emmerson Mnangagwa would serve out the remainder of Robert Mugabe's term before the elections due to be held; during or before September 2018.

According to the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the elections are required to be held before the official expiry date of the current parliamentary term, which was due to end on 21 August 2018.

[7] In 2015 long-term President Robert Mugabe announced that he would run for another term in 2018, and was adopted as the ZANU–PF candidate despite the fact that he would have been 94 at the time of the elections.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khuphe, who leads a breakaway faction of the MDC after falling out with Nelson Chamisa, was also a candidate.

[17] On 18 January 2018 Mnangagwa spoke to the Financial Times in an interview, in which he invited the EU, UN and the Commonwealth to send missions to Zimbabwe in order to monitor the elections.

[18] On 29 July 2018, former President Mugabe gave a surprise press conference during which he stated he would not vote for Mnangagwa and ZANU–PF, the party he founded and led for decades.

[19] Instead, he expressed the wish to vote for his long-time rival party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Nelson Chamisa.

[32] In subsequent riots by MDC supporters, the army opened fire and killed three people, while three others died of their injuries the following day.

[34][35] On 1 August, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission released preliminary results which show that the ruling party ZANU–PF had won the majority of seats in parliament.

[38] This was the closest that an opposition party had come to ending ZANU–PF's hold on power since 2008, when Tsvangirai led the field in the first round and forced Mugabe into a runoff (from which he subsequently withdrew due to intimidation and violence by pro-Mugabe supporters), while the MDC-T won a plurality of seats in the House of Assembly.

[41] On 24 August 2018, the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe dismissed Chamisa's challenge and officially declared Mnangagwa the winner in a unanimous ruling.

[42][43][44] The Chief Justice Luke Malaba noted that Chamisa refused both a recount and access to the ballot boxes.