It’s been a long and arduous process: UZA leader wins court case to contest for Zim presidency

United Zimbabwe Alliance (UZA) president, Elisabeth Valerio has won her appeal against the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) decision to reject her presidential nomination papers.

Valerio was one of the two female presidential candidates whose nomination papers were rejected by ZEC because of payment issues.

She will be now added to the list of nominees vying for the office of the president becoming the only 2023 female presidential candidate.

In an interview with CITE, the UZA leader said she is thankful for the court outcome.

“We are very thankful for the outcome from the court. The judge did rule that we were going to be added to the ballot so I will be contesting for the presidential candidate on August 23. It’s been a long and arduous process, of course, but we are thankful that justice has been served and that we are now going to be able to actually have a presidential candidate representing our party,” she said.

“I am very thankful to be a female candidate on the ballot because it was also disappointing to see that none of the female candidates, I think we were only two of us that were trying to get on the ballot and that I was able to finally get that justice, so we are very thankful for the outcome of this.”

She however said she is disappointed that they have lost time while dealing with the court case.

“Because there have been weeks now that I have not been able to campaign as a presidential candidate so it has disadvantaged us greatly but it does give us hope of being able to stand and represent,” said Valerio.

Valerio said her party has been on the ground talking to citizens to canvas for support.

“I have been on the ground already, we are a citizens engagement political party so we spend most of our time on the ground meeting citizens, listening to citizens, sharing with them our manifesto so of course maybe we will be a lot more visible now that we have a presidential candidate and I look forward to ensuring that everyone throughout Zimbabwe knows that they have a female that they can vote for,” she said.

“We want a Zimbabwe that enables every citizen to have the opportunity to thrive. We want to ensure going forward as president of Zimbabwe I will be allowed to lead and to ensure that our future as a country will be very different.”