Plans to hold rally in Dar today
Since the end of the general election which saw President Dr John Magufuli declared the winner amid an outcry of poll rigging from Ukawa, there have been squabbles between the police and the parties forming the coalition over their right to hold countrywide public rallies.
The police claim that the ban on rallies organized by all the political parties which participated in the election aimed at giving time for voters to cool down their political temper.
Police spokesperson Advera Bulemba told the press on Friday in Dar es Salaam that her office had been receiving requests from political parties asking for permission to stage public rallies but, for security reasons, the requests had been denied.
However, Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) National Chairman, Freeman Mbowe, told the Guardian yesterday in the city that their plan to hold a public rally today was still on as planned.
“We have sent a letter to the police informing them about our planned public rally in Dar es Salaam tomorrow (today). We haven’t yet received their official communication about the matter,” he said.
Mbowe fell short of mentioning where the rally would take place, saying it would be made known today morning.
He said the general election was over and hence there was no reason for the police to bar staging of their planned public rallies.
“We are allowed to conduct rallies because it is our duty to inform the public on a number of issues.
We only need to inform the police so they can provide us with security, and that is precisely what we have done,” he said.
According to Mbowe, information being circulated on various social media and the internet about cancellation of Ukawa’s planned rallies tomorrow (today) in Dar es Salaam was false and should therefore be ignored.
Earlier in the week the police turned town a Chadema application to hold a public rally at Jangwani grounds in the city on the ground that this was not the appropriate time to hold rallies before the voters’ political tempers had cooled down.
In a separate development, Mbowe explained that they would use today’s rally to clarify a National Electoral Commission (NEC) statement issued on Friday on the number of Special Seats members of Parliament the electoral body had allotted to the coalition partners.
Before NEC’s announcement, Chadema had issued a statement saying the figures released by NEC were at variance with the number of votes the opposition parties had garnered in the general election.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
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