Fact Check: Can convicted criminals run for elections?

Claim: If a person is convicted in a court of law, they cannot run for public office, according to social media posts that followed the imposition of a fine on Citizen Coalition for Change (CCC) spokesperson Fadzai Mahere over charges of disseminating false information — a charge and sentence which the opposition official is appealing against as legally invalid.

True or False? False. Zimbabwean laws do not explicitly prohibit a convicted person from running for public office, according to provisions of the national constitution. There is also no such prohibition in the Zimbabwe Electoral Act.

What the law says

The Zimbabwe Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, simply states that every citizen has the right to run for public office. It does not offer any preconditions or limitations.

Section 67(3)(a) of the 2013 Constitution states that every Zimbabwean citizen who is of, or over eighteen years of age has the right to stand for election for public office and, if elected, to hold such office.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Act, in Section 45D spells out grounds under which a party list candidate can be disqualified by ZEC. The following are the conditions; 45D Disqualifications for nomination as party-list candidate (1) Subject to subsection (2), a person shall not be qualified for nomination as a party-list candidate for an electoral province in terms of section 45C if he or she—

(a) is not registered on a voters roll in a ward belonging to a constituency in the electoral province; or

(b) is nominated, and has accepted to be nominated, as a party-list candidate by more than one political party; or

(c) in the case of a party-list candidate for election as a Senator, is also nominated as a party-list candidate for election to the National Assembly or the provincial council, or as a candidate for election as a constituency member of the National Assembly, or as a councillor; or

(d) in the case of a party-list candidate for election as a member of the National Assembly, is also nominated as a party-list candidate for election as a Senator or the provincial council, or as a candidate for election as a constituency member of the National Assembly, or as a councillor; or

(e) in the case of a party-list candidate for election as a member of the provincial council, is also nominated as a party-list candidate for election as a Senator or the National Assembly, or as a candidate for election as a constituency member of the National Assembly, or as a councillor.

(2) Where a person is nominated more than once contrary to subsection (1)(b), (c), (d) or (e), all the nominations of the person as a party-list candidate shall be void.

Verdict: The law being applied to administer elections in Zimbabwe is clear that every citizen has the right to run for public office. Except for a special clause governing the nomination of local authority candidates.

There is an exception with local authority posts where one cannot run for office after being convicted of a crime of dishonesty.

This is according to Section 119(2) ( e) which states that a person shall be disqualified from being nominated as a candidate for or from election as a councillor if he or she has been convicted of crimes of dishonesty.

There is however a proposal to bar people who have been convicted of crimes from running but this has not yet been passed into law

Sources: Zimbabwe National Constitution
https://www.veritaszim.net/node/6018
https://www.zec.org.zw/