EA court faults election of Tanzania EALA MPs

Uganda is well represented on the East African Legislative Assembly. Pictured is EALA Speaker Margaret Zziwa welcoming President Yoweri Museveni at a EALA in Kigali, Rwanda last year. PHOTO/PPU

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By Andante Okanya

 

The East African Court of Justice (EACJ) has faulted the election of Tanzania’s representatives to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), saying it violated Article 50(1) of the EAC Treaty.

 

The judgment was delivered on September 26 by the First Instance division of the court based in the Tanzanian city of Arusha.

 

However, the court did not annul the election of the nine representatives.

 

The judgment declared that the election was premised on only political parties as the sole grouping, as opposed to all other groups envisaged in Article 50(1) of the Treaty.

 

Article 50 (1) of the Treaty, stipulates that: The National Assembly of each Partner State shall elect, not from among its members, nine member s of the Assembly, who shall represent as much as it is feasible, the various political parties represented in the National Assembly, shades of opinion, gender and other special interest groups in that Partner State, in a accordance with such procedure as the National Assembly of each Partner State may determine.

 

The elections were held on March 17, 2012 at the Tanzanian National Assembly.The case arose in 2012 when Anthony Calist Komu, a member of Tanzania’s political party Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) filed a petition against the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania.

 

Komu fruitlessly contested for EALA membership. He challenged the process of the elections, contending that it contravened Article 50(1) of the EAC Treaty.

 

He sought a pronouncement condemning the Parliament of Tanzania for not complying with the principal of proportional representation and allowing candidates from political parties which are not represented in the national assembly.

 

Court awarded Komu a quarter costs of the case for having partly succeeded in his case.

 

The Tanzania EALA members are Bhanji Shy-Rose Sadrudin, Adam Omar Kimbisa, Angela Charles Kizigha, Bernard Musomi Murunya, and Abdullah Ally Hassan Mwinyi.

 

Others are Perpetua Kessy Nderakindo, Charles Makongoro Nyerere, Twaha Issa Taslima, and Maryam Ussi Yahya.