This is hardly a day after the President had instructed that voters should leave to their homes after they had cast their votes on October 25 to avoid possible outbreak of chaos.
Expressing their doubts over the National Electoral Commission (NEC)’s ability to oversee a free, fair and transparent election, Ukawa officials said they now wants their representatives to man not only the polling stations but also NEC’s receiving and tallying centres.
Speaking to reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Chadema director of elections Reginald Munisi said such agents would liaise with agents stationed at polling centres to verify the data in the final tallying.
The agents are the coalition’s qualified information technology (IT) experts, he said.
“With our IT experts at NEC’s tallying centre, we are sure that there will be no cheating,” he said, adding that it’s important for NEC to consider this request so that justice is seen to prevail.Detailing on the past election experiences in other countries such as Kenya and Ghana, he said, errors do occur and cause hitches in the employment of technology, prompting the need for availability of political party representatives to correct them.
NEC Chairman Judge (rtd) Damian Lubuva rejected the request by Ukawa, urging the coalition to put their trust on the Commission and let it do its work.
He said NEC has its own IT system experts, who are well trained and can manage any errors to ensure there is accuracy and openness, hence there is no need for external agents to supervise or monitor the tallying process at the tallying centres.
Justice Lubuva said that Ukawa must obey the laws that govern the general duties of NEC and should not complain always.
“I call upon Chadema and Ukawa not to interfere the general duties of NEC. In case there is a problem they should contact the responsible electoral organ for detailed information,” he insisted.
For his part, the head of Law and Campaigns in Ukawa, John Mallya called on voters to stay 200 metres from the polling stations after voting to protect their ballots as allowed by the law.
He was criticising recent directives issued by President Jakaya Kikwete to voters that they must go home after they had cast their ballots or else prepare to face full force of the law.
He said the Election Act states out that after casting their votes, voters are allowed to stay 199 metres from the polling stations therefore they must not be afraid.
“No person is allowed to hold a meeting or gathering when the election is being held. However the laws allow them to stay 200 from polling stations,” he said.
He clarified that NEC is the only organ that has the mandate to announce all matters relating to elections and not any other person.
Explaining on the shortcomings claimed to be in the voter registry he said in one constituency in Dodoma Urban, for example, there were more than 17 mistakes noted.
Reacting to this Justice Lubuva said Ukawa should have contacted the regional election officer for clarification instead of staging a press conference to explain the matter.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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