Zanzibar political parties may get subsidies

BY THE GUARDIAN REPORTER

17th January 2013

Mohamed Aboud Mohamed

Members of the House of Representatives of Zanzibar met yesterday to discuss the Bill of law that proposes that political parties operating in Zanzibar be paid subsidies.

The Bill of law is expected to be tabled by the State Minister in the Second Vice President's Office, Mohamed Aboud Mohamed, during the House meeting to be held at Chukwani in Zanzibar.

Briefing journalists, the House Clerk, Yahya Khamis Hamad, said five Bills of law are scheduled to be tabled during the 10th meeting of the House.

He identified the Bills to be tabled as; the Political Parties Subsidies Act No. 6 of 1997, the Bill of Marine Transportation Act 2006 amendments, the Bill of Enacting the Zanzibar Shipping Agency and the Bill of establishing the Zanzibar Broadcasting Corporation.

Yahya said that during the meeting, three reports of the House Designate Committee including that of investigating performance of the Zanzibar Municipal council whereas corruption accusations in the Zanzibar Electrical Company limited will be investigated.

“If the members of the House will endorse the draft, and signed by the Zanzibar President in order for them to become law; the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar will be required to set aside a percentage of its budget for subsidies to political parties with representation in Zanzibar,” Yahya said.

Section 3(1) of the Act has put in place the arrangement of how the subsidies will be shared among the political parties whereby the party that wins for presidency will take 25 per cent of the total amount.

The Bill states that 50 per cent of the subsidies will be shared by the principal parties depending on the number of seats they won in the House of Representatives while the remaining 25 per cent will be shared by the winning political parties depending on the ration of victory they obtained at the ward level in local government polls.

According to conditions set by the proposed law, the parties that would most likely benefit from the arrangement would be CCM and CUF, which are the ones currently with representation in Zanzibar's legislature.

Minister Aboud said the Bill, once endorsed and signed into law, following a long delay because of financial constraints since 1997, will provide a relief to political parties and enable them run their affairs smoothly.

He said the ratio of share of the subsidies has been improved with the purpose of building a better political ground in the Isles.   

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN