BY WARYOBA YANKAMI
1st January 2014
The draft was handed over to President Jakaya Kikwete and Zanzibar President Ali Mohamed Shein by the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) chairman Judge Joseph Warioba.
According to a cross section of views from the public, the new draft contains major improvements, but also minor challenges which if not rectified will affect the country’s democratic march.
An independent lawyer and Chadema member Prof Abdallah Safari said the Independent National Electoral Commission (NEC) is not well defined in the draft.
Prof Safari said that NEC is an important element in any country’s political prosperity, but the commission has not given it deserving attention.
Prof Safari expressed concern on the transitional rules which said the country will continue using current laws even during and after General Election in 2015.
Women Fund Tanzania (WFT) Programme Officer Brian Mshana said the draft gives hope to human rights activists that the rights of the people will be respected.
He was optimistic that if there were no further changes to the second draft, most of the disturbing questions for the majority of Tanzanians will have been addressed.
Dr Godfrey Sansa a lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration said there was no need for the government to rush in preparing the constitution as Tanzanians had no prior experience.
He said even if the constitution were to take four years before coming into force, there would still be a number of issues to address.
David Mlay a student at the Institute of Social Work said the prosperity and future of Tanzanians is in the hands of members of the Constituent Assembly, after the successful work done by CRC.
“We ask members of the assembly not to make any mistake since the costs will be enormous,” he said.
A businessman at Mwenge Humphrey Mmbando applauded the commission, calling on legislators to be careful when debating issues such as land and natural resources.
He warned that the constitution is for all Tanzanians, including MPs and they should be aware that if they betray voters to satisfy their political interests, they will also bear the consequences.
When submitting the second draft Warioba said that there will be transitional period, during which laws, rules and regulations will be changed and authorities identified in the new constitution institutionalised.
According to him, chapters 10 and 7 suggested a four-year transitional period from 2014 to 31th December, 2018.
During the period the current constitution laws will continue to be in use.
He noted that laws which are currently used in mainland will be for Tanganyika and those used in Zanzibar will continue because Zanzibar already has its own laws.
The laws that apply both in the Mainland and Zanzibar respectively will be used by the Union government.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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