The call comes in the wake of yesterday’s commendation to the commission by the European Union (EU) Delegation to Tanzania that lauded NEC following its pledge to announce results at every polling station.
“The move will help increase transparency,” the European Head of Delegation, Ambassador Filiberto Sebregondi remarked yesterday at the official launch of the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) in Dar es Salaam.
“We welcome this decision positively,” he said.
“This way, everybody will be in a better position to know who won in the election in a timely manner,” he added noting that “...the earlier you provide the results the better.”
He said the earlier the results are made public then the lower the risk of public anxiety and social unrest.Speaking earlier at the same occasion, EU Chief Observer, Judith Sargentini, who is on her maiden visit to the country, said while there is no formal standard to issue the elections results; “it’s important for the nation to maintain a proper level of tabulation and pronouncing of the results.”
Sargentini, who is in the country to officially deploy the EU EOM comprising of around 140 long-term and short-term observers, said the team will be on ground across the country to follow-up the election campaigns, voting and after the elections.
“We will not interfere with the law, we will be watching and we’re not going to offer any conclusions,” she told reporters.
She said the incoming election observers from the EU will develop contact with other international and domestic observers to monitor the election process in the country.
“There is nothing more to prove our neutrality but we will stick to national and international standards to give our final report,” she reassured stakeholders.
The EU Chief Observer also commended the government for implementing recommendations given by the EU in the previous elections including improvement of the voters’ registration process.
“There was positive turnover of Tanzanians coming to register in the just ended Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) technology, countrywide and that is a commendable improvement,” she said.
Meanwhile, Fredrick Mtaki and David Kisena (TUDARCo) also reporting from Dar es Salaam after reaching stakeholders for comments, quoted the Tanzania Constitutional Forum (TCF) chairman, Deus Kibamba, as having questioned the rationale for waiting for 72 hours to elapse before announcing the voting results; “yet the vote cast is to be counted at the polling station,” he queried.
“It is good to hear that the polling stations will be turned to vote counting centres,” he said “...but it is unnecessary to delay announcing the results for 72 hours because summing up the votes from the polling stations enables the results to come out within 24 hours,” he argued.
Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe seconded the concern describing the 72 hour time frame as ‘too long.’
Similarly, Marcos Albany, a political analyst in the city, said; “in this era of technology, taking 72 hours to count and announce the results is too long, I would expect that the results would be delivered at least within 48 hours,” he suggested.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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