The High Court in Dar es Salaam is today expected to start hearing a petition filed by Chadema Special Seat contestant Ammy Kibatala who is seeking a declaration order that voters have the right to stay orderly within the radius of 200 metres from where voting in the general election takes place without breaking the law.
A panel of three judges led by Judge Sekieti Kihiyo, Aloysius Mujulizi and Lugano Mwandambo, is scheduled to hear the petition.
At the end of the week, Kibatala, who is Special Seat contestant from Kilombero District, through advocate Peter Kibatala filed a petition at the High Court under certificate of urgency, seeking the court to give proper interpretation of the provision of Section 104 (1), of the National Election Act, Cap 343 (RE 2002).
In the case, she has asked the court also to give interpretation of the “import and effect of the provision” on the right of voters or interested persons to stay beyond the distance from where voting is taking place and where tallying is taking place. She has also requested the court to issue declaratory orders that voters have the right to stay orderly beyond the 200 metre radius from a polling station.
The first respondent in the petition is the Attorney General, who represents the government, while the second respondent is chairman of the National Electoral Commission, the body vested with the mandate to supervise elections in the country.
According to the petitioner, the Commission has issued a statement to the effects that voters and the general public are not permitted to stay near a polling station, not even beyond the 200-metre radius permitted by law when voting is in progress.
“The Commission has stated that no voter or any other persons is permitted to stay in any area near a polling station where tallying of votes will be done,” she said in the petition.
The petition states that the Commission has issued the said order purportedly pursuant to Section 104(1) of the National Elections Act, Cap 343.
Despite the said section having been violated, she said, on October 14 while addressing a public rally to commemorate the passing away of the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, President Jakaya Kikwete reiterated the Commission’s stance, stating categorically that state force would be used against those who would not heed the NEC prohibition.
From the President’s statement, the petitioner said, as a registered voter who fully intends to utilise her basic right, such a prohibition would affect her right to fully participate in the electral process which is constitutionally required to be transparent, among other characteristics.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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