The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Director, Philippe Poinsot has called for multi-party dialogue to reduce political tensions ahead of the general elections scheduled for October this year.
Poinsot was speaking in Dar esc Salaam yesterday at a two- day stakeholders consultative workshop organized by both the UNDP and the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) which was attended by all twenty two political parties.
The objective of the workshop was to bring together parties and assist ORPP to design the national dialogue for the 2015 elections.
He said for a combination of reasons with some variation from place to place, most observers agree that political tensions in the country were higher because of the coming October General Elections.He said political parties have a key role in managing and reducing the tensions thus multiparty dialogue was necessary.
“Multi-party dialogue will build trust, reduce tensions and identify problems and issues for common attention such as controlling youth vanguards and can help to solve problems that threaten peace during the elections,” he said.
He said that given their competitive nature, elections can trigger conflict even if such conflict may not be related to the electoral process itself.
He pointed out that political parties have a key role in managing and reducing those tensions. “Without multi-party dialogue, problems and tensions are certain to grow. I believe the multi-party dialogue has an important role to play in promoting peace in the country,” he stressed.
However, Poinsot said that similarly, Tanzania in the past elections before 2010 has had a long history of peaceful elections.
He said this notwithstanding, they believe that it is important that UNDP helped put in place and help to sustain the coming elections and beyond the national efforts that can build dialogues and thus prevent conflicts related to the 2015 general elections.
According to Poinsot, UNDP and other donors are helping to strengthen the capacity of key democratic institutions in the country.
They include the electoral management bodies which are the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC), the judiciary, police and ORPP to execute their respective mandates, credibly and sustainably.
He said the workshop will contribute to the national dialogues to strengthen multi-party democracy and peace mitigation.
It will also validate another Democratic Empowerment Project (DEP) supported study on inter party and intra party dispute resolution mechanism.
Convening the forum, Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP), Justice Francis Mutungi said that bringing together various political parties is a key player to improving democracy in the country.
He said dialogues are a key for political parties to practice fair and clean democracy.
“It is the responsibilities of politicians to protect the image of the country by avoiding conflicts….we have to find means to safeguard the peace that prevail in the country, “he called.
Mutungi said the pressure for elections should not lead to conflicts, political parties should think of it.
Commenting, Chairman of the Political Parties Council (PPC), Peter Mziray said that politicians must make sure that Tanzania does not go to conflicts during the coming elections.
He said that PPC believes that bringing together political parties to discuss various issues was an important step to cementing unity in the country.
According to Mziray last Tuesday, he held talks with the Prime Minister, Mizengo Pinda discussing various issues related to the general elections and planning to call a meeting that will include all political parties, NEC and the police.
One of the issues Mziray highlighted included political parties which own security groups in a move to monitor them.
“Such security groups formed in the political parties have should be monitored closely by the police in a move to avoid breaking the country’s laws,” he said.
He said that the aim is to make sure they do not go beyond on what they have been trained so as to avoid unwanted conflicts for the sake of the country’s peace.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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