Saturday, July 25, 2015
Mr Eleutery Bangala, a resident of Gongo la Mboto, Dar es Salaam,
proudly displays his voter’s card after it was issued to him yesterday.
Many Dar es Salaam residents continued to spend hours in queues on the
second day of the registration of voters in the region. PHOTO| VENANCE
NESTORY
Dar es Salaam. The National
Electoral Commission (NEC) has been urged to address the challenges that
have affected voter listing through the Biometric Voters Registration
(BVR) technology.
Stakeholders including party leaders
and academics accused the electoral body of shunning the exercise and
leaving the matter to local authorities that are incapable of managing
such an important task.
There were long queues at registration centres arising from a shortage of BRV kits and technical hitches.
Ubungo
Member of Parliament John Mnyika urged the electoral body to get more
BVR kits if it is to register all 2.9 million potential voters in the
commercial city. NEC has only 3,400 kits and not the 8,000 that were
announced in the media.
Speaking after a tour of the
centres, Mr Mnyika urged NEC Chairman Judge Damian Lubuva and Prime
Minister Mizengo Pinda to explain why only 3,700 kits had been allocated
to Dar es Salaam.
According to Mr Mnyika, the
registration has been sluggish due mainly to BVR machines that were
either limited or not working. He added: “I am not sure all eligible
voters in Dar es Salaam will be registered at this pace. NEC should get
more kits and ensure all 2.9 potential voters are registered.”
The
MP said he had witnessed moves that appeared to be intended to favour
the ruling CCM, including registering voters beyond the 6pm deadline. “I
can see why CCM Publicity Secretary Nape Nnauye said the party would
win even if it meant scoring a goal by hand,” the MP said. “They have
started already.”
But NEC Director of Elections Julius
Malaba played down Mr Mnyika claims, and explained that it was okay to
list voters after 6pm provided all stakeholders were in agreement.
The
NEC official said they had sent the Information Communication
Technology team to fix the BVR kits that had problems. There were
protests, though, that NEC had assigned incompetent local government
officials who had only ended up slowing down the process.
“It
is a shame that NEC is relying on local government officials who are
not independent and competent,” said Mr Mohammed Majid, a resident of
Mabibo. “NEC should assign its officials to do the work.” The
registration turned violent at some registration centres and blows were
exchanged in the rush to get registered. Dr Emmanuel Mallya, head of
the political science department at the Open University of Tanzania,
urged NEC to address any problems there and then as any reforms would
take years.
Even if NEC officials were the ones
operating the kits, he added, they would still have encountered
challenges due to the limited number of BVR kits. Speaking during a
seminar that brought together election observers from civil society
organisations, Mr Onesmo Olengurumo of the Coalition of Human Rights
Defenders urged NEC to do everything in its power to make sure all
eligible voters were registered.
(Reported By Frank Kimboy, Bakari Kiango, Peter Elias, Suzan Mwilo and Saumu Mwalimu)
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