Former South African President Jacob Zuma has filed an appeal against the country’s electoral commission, which last week barred him from running in the country’s forthcoming general elections in May.
Mr Zuma, 81, served as the country’s president from 2009 until 2018 but had to step down as a result of corruption allegations leveled against him.
After the corruption trial in 2021, Zuma was sentenced to a jail term of 15 months for refusing to testify to a panel probing financial corruption and cronyism under his presidency. However, two months into his term, he was freed under medical parole by his successor Cyril Ramphosa’s administration.
READ ALSO: South Africa: Ex-President Jacob Zuma Barred from Contesting May Elections
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He has since then left the governing African National Congress (ANC), and joined the new uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party ahead of May’s general election.
But the electoral commission also said in a statement last week that under the South African constitution “any person who was convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than 12 months imprisonment without the option of a fine” cannot stand in an election.
The AFP news agency reports that court papers filed on his behalf argue that the electoral commission “had no valid reasons to violate the political rights of [former] President Zuma”.
