Achi news desk-
Johannesburg, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 29th March, 2024) South African electoral officials said on Thursday that they have banned former president Jacob Zuma from the May elections, preventing further tensions in the run-up to the elections.
The country will hold general elections on May 29 in what is expected to be the most competitive vote since the advent of democracy in 1994.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) is set to fall below 50 percent of the vote for the first time since it came to power at the end of apartheid.
The party is bleeding support amid a weak economy and allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
Zuma, 81, was forced out of office in 2018 under a cloud of corruption allegations but still wields political influence.
He has been campaigning for the opposition party uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in an attempt to relaunch his career, calling members of his former party, the ANC, “traitors”.
“In the case of former president Zuma, yes, we received an objection, which has been confirmed,” the president of the electoral commission, Mosotho Moepya, told reporters, without giving details.
“The party that has nominated him has been informed” and those who oppose the proposal, he added.
The decision can be appealed before April 2.
A spokesman for MK Nhlamulo Ndlhela told AFP that the party was “looking at the merits of that objection but we will of course appeal it”.
