Sunday, August 2, 2015
Democratic Party (DP) chairman Rev Christopher Mtikila(right), received
presidential nomination forms from National Electoral Commission (NEC),
official George Kashura in Dar es Salaam yesterday. Right his running
mate Juma Metu Juma. PHOTO| SAID KHAMIS
Dar es Salaam. The National
Electoral Commission (Nec), yesterday started issuing presidential
nomination forms to various political party aspirants, but Democratic
Party (DP) chairman Rev Christopher Mtikila questioned the legality and
validity of the General Election considering a recent ruling by African
Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) that deemed local laws
banning independent candidacy ‘a violation’ of basic political rights.
Rev
Mtikila, who was accompanied by his followers when going to pick the
forms at Nec offices, said the country was going into the crucial
exercise while denying its citizens freedom to fully exercise their
rights.
“We are going to this important exercise with
our laws that hinder our people from participating in this important
process and we call it democracy,” he said.
He said, it
was sad that Tanzania was disobeying a ruling by one of highest courts
in the continent, saying this was an indication that the authorities do
not even obeyed local courts as well.
A series of
constitutional amendments made in the heady days leading up to
Tanzania’s transition to a multiparty democracy dictate that candidates
for public office be backed by political parties, effectively banning
private candidacy.
Three presidential aspirants from
United People’s Democratic Party (UPDP), Tanzania Labour Party (TLP) and
Democratic Party (DP) collected their forms yesterday after Nec raised
the curtain.
UPDP aspirant, Mr Fahmi Dovutwa, was the
first to pick up the forms at 9am and was followed by TLP aspirant, Mr
Macmillan Lyimo, who collected them at noon and DP’s Mtikila collected
the forms at 2pm.
Earlier, there was drama at the Nec
offices when UPDP aspirant, Mr Dovutwa, stuck in an elevator which
malfunctioned as he was descending.
He stayed in the
elevator for about ten minutes. Mr Dovutwa arrived at the offices
minutes before the scheduled time, but just after collecting the forms
from election officers at sixth floor, he was asked to address the media
if he wished.
Journalists kept waiting for him down
the building until when he was rescued by electrical operators and told
journalists that his political opponents were behind the incident.
“This
is sabotage and I know that there are people who are trying to let me
down on this but they will not succeed, how come that journalists used
the same elevator and did not stuck?,” he queried.
On
August 4, CCM would pick up the forms at around 12 and on the next day
at 9am it will be the turn of the Alliance for Democratic Change (ADC).
The
Tanzania Democratic Alliance (Tadea) and Alliance for Change and
Transparency (ACT-Wazalendo) have been scheduled to pick up the forms on
August 1, according to NEC timetable.
Mr Lyimo said he
believed that his party has the ability to lead the nation saying that
is the reason they have decided to go alone.
Parties will be slotted for picking forms after notifying NEC that they have completed internal nomination process.
Dully
filled and signed forms should be returned before August 21 when NEC is
going to conduct the nomination, ahead of campaigns which would kick
off on August 22.
The campaigns would run for about two months to October 24 to pave the way for the General Election on October 25, this year.
He
said each presidential aspirant would be required to look for 200
sureties from eight regions from Tanzania Mainland and two from
Zanzibar.
Presidential aspirants will be required to
pay Sh1 million fee when returning the forms. Fees for parliamentary and
councillorship have been set at Sh50,000 and Sh5,000 respectively
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