Kizigha and Banji out of EALA race
Two former East African Legislative Assembly Members of Parliament from Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), who were seeking nomination for re-election in the regional body, were axed in the ruling party’s Central Committee (CC) that met yesterday.
According to the party’s Ideology and Publicity Secretary, Humphrey Polepole, the party had already forwarded 12 names of successful nominees to the speaker of the National Assembly. However, the names of popular politicians, Ms Angela Kizigha and Ms Shyrose Bhanji who were defending their seats were dropped, ending their political career in EALA at least for now.
The two were among 450 CCM cadres who were flexing their political muscles in a bruising titanic battle to win nomination in their party so that they can be voted by Members of Parliament to represent the country into the regional law making body.
According to Mr Polepole, the CC convened yesterday under the leadership of the party’s chairman Dr John Magufuli and came up with 12 names that will be voted by parliamentarians in the august House to get six EALA members from CCM.
From the mainland, the committee proposed four men and four women while from the Isles the committee proposed two men and two women.
“Among other factors, we considered gender threshold at 50/50 ratio, educational background, experience in leadership, ethics and integrity and both sides of the union, unlike other parties that picked names without going through a proper and transparent democratic process,’’ he explained.
The party’s spokesperson as Zainab Kawawa, Happiness Lugiko, Fancy Nkuhi and Happiness Mgalula (Mainland-women). The proposed names of men from mainland are Dr Ngwaru Maghembe, Adam Kimbisa, Anamringi Macha and Makongoro Nyerere.
From Zanzibar, the CC proposed four names out of which two are men and two are women. They are Abdalla Hasnu Makame, Mohammed Yusuf Nuhu, Maryam Ussi Yahaya and Rabia Abdalla Hamid.
Prior to picking up of the names, Mr Polepole said all the 450 names (out of which 93 were women and 357 were men) were forwarded to the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) secretariat for a rigorous vetting process.
Later, the names were forwarded to CC that also forwarded the names of people with requisite criteria to a committee of CCM parliamentarians for voting, before the 12 names were released yesterday. When assessing the names, Mr Polepole said some members who were seeking nomination were axed after the party proved that they had tried to offer bribes during the process.
According to him, apart from removing their names, the party had directed the government through the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau to take appropriate legal action against them.
Meanwhile, ACT Wazalendo party leader, Mr Zitto Kabwe has forwarded a request to the speaker of the National Assembly Job Ndugai to convene the Parliamentary Standing Orders Committee to deliberate on the latter’s Government Gazzette No 11, released on March 17 announcing the election of EALA members.
According to Mr Zitto, who doubles as Kigoma Urban Law Maker, the speaker’s announcement violated the parliamentary standing orders that provides for representation of all political parties that have representatives in the National Assembly regardless of their number of representatives in the House.
“The speaker issued directives that the positions to be contested in Parliament shall consider the representation ratio in the House, meaning there will be allotment of seats instead of election, a directive that is against the East African Treaty,’’ he insisted.