NEC: Election preliminary results out within 24hrs

National Electoral Commission chairman Judge Damian Lubuva addresses journalists on various issues concerning voting arrangements in the general elections today. With him is acting NEC legal director Emmanuel Kawishe.

Preliminary parliamentary and councillorship results are expected to be announced within 24 hours from closing of polling at poll stations, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) has said.

However, NEC stressed that presidential results would be announced within 72 hours after the votes has been collected and tallied.

NEC Chairman Judge (Rtd) Damian Lubuva said at a press briefing in Dar es Salaam yesterday that all preparations for today’s exercise in all regions were set and voters would cast their votes without any inconvenience.

Judge Lubuva said the results announcement and any other election-related information would be conducted through Mwalimu Nyerere Convention Conference hall in the city.

NEC has already said that the total number of voters is 23,254,485 who will cast their votes at 64,736 polling centres in Tanzania Mainland and 1,580 in Zanzibar.

He said NEC had gone to great lengths to ensure that all registered voters would today be able to freely choose leaders of their choic.
“People should go to vote without fear because there is enough security around all polling stations countrywide. Priority should be given to special groups of people including pregnant women,” he said.

The chairman however cautioned political parties that only their NEC authorized agents would be allowed to enter polling stations.

He also assured the public that no registered voter whose name appears on the register book would be prohibited from casting their ballot.

“Parties taking part in the election should not fear because the tallying system from the initial point destination up to the NEC database was open to all the stakeholders.

However, he stressed that the Commission was the only legal body with the mandate to supervise and announces election results, adding that its functions cannot be challenged or interfered with.

According to him, NEC would work jointly with parties to ensure that the announced results were verified, shared and corrected in cases of errors or omissions.

On Friday the Coalition of Defenders of People’s Constitution (Ukawa) announced their plan to install an alternative Information and Telecommunication Centre (ICT) to monitor election results from polling stations countrywide to serve as a watchdog over NEC results.

The centre would be responsible for collecting announced results from their agents at polling centres snd releasing them to the media.

The move, according to Ukawa, comes amid concerns that the CCM government had shown all indications of unwillingness to vacate the State House when if it loses, going by its repeated assertions that it was certain to emerge victorious in the polls.

 Addressing journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) director of elections, Reginald Munisi, said the centre would not limit its functions to collecting presidential results, but also parliamentary  and councillorship results from every polling centre in the country.

  “We have more than 800 young IT experts who will be at the ICT centre during the Sunday (today) election,” he noted, adding that if NEC’s data varied from theirs they would sit with Commission officials to verify the discrepancies on the spot.

 “We have confidence in our agents as we believe they are committed enough to bring changes that will give no room to bribes or giving wrong information,” he said in response to a question whether the agents would resist bribes to facilitate vote rigging. 

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY