Opposition flaws mar EALA polls
Flaws in nomination process by opposition camp marred the much-awaited elections of the country’s representatives to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), due for today.
The Bunge administration revealed here yesterday that it had failed to approve nominees fronted by oppo-sition Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADE-MA) and Civic United Front (CUF).
The National Assembly is this morning scheduled to vote for the country’s nine envoys to the regional legislative body for the 2017-2021 period, but just hours to the polls, only 12 candidates from Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) have been cleared for the elections.
The Clerk of the National Assembly, Dr Thom-as Kashilila, said in a statement here yesterday that Chadema and CUF, which qualify from among the op-position wing to field candidates in the elections, failed to adhere to regulations governing the election, among others, overlooking women in the process.
“The endorsement of candidates from group C (op-position parties) could not be done due to observed weaknesses in the nomination documents, which breach Article 50 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community,” said Dr Kashilila.
He said while the EALA Act, 2011 stipulates that at least one third of the elected members shall reflect either gender, neither Chadema nor CUF observed gen-der equality when picking up their candidates.
According to Dr Kashilila, Chadema in particular failed to submit to his office the application forms for the aspirants, the list of aspirants and the election result form.It was however revealed that each of CUF’s two antagonistic groups submitted list of nominees.
“There was no authentication of citizenship of two candidates,” said Dr Kashilila without revealing the identity of the two aspirants.CUF, which has one slot in the nine EALA seats, also failed to submit the results of the party’s primaries.
“I have written to the parties, which qualify to con-test under opposition parties asking them to rectify the identified flaws and submit to my office the nominees and all other required documents by tomorrow (today) before 13:00hrs,” said Dr Kashilila.
“The endorsement of group C (opposition parties) candidates will therefore be conducted any time from 13:00 tomorrow (today) upon receipt and verification of the documents that I expect from the two parties,” he added.
The ruling CCM, with the most representation in the house, is entitled to a lion’s share of Tanzania’s representatives to EALA and the parliament confirmed yesterday it has endorsed all the 12 candidates.
They are Dr Ngwalu Maghembe, Adam Kimbisa, Anamringi Macha, Makongoro Nyerere, Zainabu Kawawa, Happiness Mgalula, Fancy Nkuhi and Hap-piness Lugiko from Mainland Tanzania.Others are Abdallah Makame, Mohamed Nuh, Maryam Yahya and Rabia Hamid from Zanzibar.
If both are re-elected Kimbisa, CCM Dodoma Re-gional Chairperson, and Charles Makongoro Nyerere will be serving their second and last terms to the re-gional body.
The main opposition party, Chadema had fronted former Home Affairs Minister Lawrence Masha and ex-Nyamagana MP Ezekia Wenje as the party’s flag-bearers in the elections while CUF had nominated incumbent EALA member Twaha Taslima, Thomas Malima, Sonia Magogo, and Habib Mnyaa.