CLAIM: Elisabeth Valerio will be the first female Presidential candidate as she won her appeal against ZEC’s decision to reject her nomination papers.
SOURCE: CITE
VERDICT: Missing context
On 19 July 2023 leader of United Zimbabwe Alliance Elisabeth Valerio won her bid to contest in the 2023 presidential race.
A reader asked us to check if ‘Elisabeth Valerio will be the first female Presidential candidate as she won her appeal against ZEC’s decision to reject her nomination papers’, as had been reported by CITE.
Background
Valerio’s nomination papers had been rejected by the nomination court due to non payment. However, Valerio insisted that she had done a bank transfer to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and had a proof of payment document to prove it. However, the nomination court had insisted that since by end of nomination day, her payment was not reflecting in the account, her papers could not be accepted, hence the court case.
Credit: UZA
Conclusion
Valerio is not the first presidential candidate ever but is indeed the first and only female candidate in this year’s presidential election. The post has been rated as one with missing context since it does not make it clear that she is the first in this year’s election.
In the 2018 election, Zimbabwe had 4 female candidates in the presidential election – former Vice President Joyce Mujuru, former Prime minister Thokozani Khupe, Violet Mariyacha and Melbah Dzapasi. None of them are contesting in this year’s presidential race.
