Only transparency will make both NEC and the election credible.

BY EDITOR

3rd October 2015.

Editorial Cartoon.

As the clock ticks towards polling day political stakeholders have strongly called on the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to conduct its duties fairly, freely and transparently to make the election credible.

Fortunately enough, the electoral body has responded positively to these voices, saying this year’s general election would be historic, in the sense that everything would be conducted both transparently and fairly.

To start with, NEC has made it clear that all presidential and parliamentary votes will be counted at the polling stations and the results posted on the walls for everyone to see. The scanned copies of forms bearing the results will then be sent to relevant authorities for final tallying, meaning that boxes containing the cast votes will now not have to be moved from point A to B for counting. 

This arrangement, however good it may appear, also needs to be carefully handled, given the fact that in the 2010 general election complaints emerged whereby  presidential results from some regions were at variance with those submitted to the NEC head office for tallying.
To avoid this problem from recurring this time around some political parties have gone further to instruct  their supporters to take pictures of the scanned copies of the results as exhibits in case discrepancies occur. 

Showing how determined NEC was in conducting its duties transparently, it has also announced that in this year’s general election members of the press would be allowed to talk to voters and supervisors at the polling stations to find out how the whole exercise was fairing. Of course, there will be limitations because there is no absolute freedom for anything in this world. 

Again, officials of the national electoral body have assured the public that it will invite political stakeholders to witness how the new software   which would be used in tallying votes works. This is of paramount importance because the confidence of all political parties in the tallying IT system installed by NEC was critical for the credibility of the results to be announced. 

As the English saying goes, it is easier said than done. The national electoral body has an uphill task to prove to Tanzanians and the whole world that it can walk the talk. This is because election time is always the critical moment for any nation, and particularly so for nascent African countries such as Tanzania. 

Election time is the moment citizens of a respective nation determine their destiny, and the determination of this destiny can be influenced in by the manner the national electoral body which acts as the referee conducts itself.

Given the historical and legal system of this country, opposition parties have always branded NEC as an institution that is not independent. Due to this perception opposition parties have always lacked confidence in most of what it does.

Now, with the promises it has so far made to the public regarding this year’s general election to be conducted in three weeks’ time, we believe things might not be the same again. 

If  NEC Chairman Justice Damian Lubuva wants to walk tall in the streets and in the eyes of the international community,  he should avoid creating an environment of mistrust in political stakeholders and the public at large.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN