Zanzibar Minister of State in the Second Vice President's Office, Mohamed Aboud has denied receiving resignation letters of six cabinet ministers from the opposition Civic United Front (CUF).
He said the tenure of their posts will end once the new Isles president is sworn-in.
“Their ministerial posts will end when Zanzibar gets a new president … I have not received any of the mentioned office equipment,” said Aboud when speaking to ‘The Guardian’ yesterday.
One of the ministers who resigned served in the Ministry of Information, Culture, Tourism and Sports, Said Ali Mbarouk said they didn’t submit
resignation letters because their tenure automatically expired on November 2, this year.
“Office the term for both the President and ministers ended on November 2, this year as per Section 28 (2) of the Zanzibar Constitution,” said Mbarouk.
Meanwhile, twenty-seven CUF elected members of the Zanzibar House of Representatives have signed a petition challenging the decision by Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) to nullify October 25 presidential election results.
In their petition, the Reps claim that they were legally elected during the last month’s General Election that was ‘free and fair’ and that they wants ZEC Chairman Jecha Salum Jecha to immediately resume the tallying of the results in the remaining electoral constituencies.The three page petition a copy of which was availed in Dar es Salaam yesterday detailed that the decision by the Commission Chairman to nullify the presidential results in the Isles was unconstitutional since he does not have powers to do so.
The Zanzibar Election Act, 1984 and the Constitution of 1984 have vested such powers to the Zanzibar High Court and not individuals or ZEC Chairman.
“The Chairman has brought about constitutional confusion in the Isles,” Abubakar Khamis Bakari told reporters in Dar es Salaam on behalf of the ‘protesting’ Reps.
We have no President, Vice Presidents or ministers … we don’t have a government,” he added noting that President Dr Ali Mohammed Shein has no powers to summon Members of the House of Representative.
Abubakari, who looked furious questioned the legitimacy of ZEC chairman to nullify the election without consulting other members of the Commission.
“This is very clear that the decision to nullify the results was not made by the Commission but by Jecha himself,” he said.
CUF had (before the Commission announcement) won eighteen seats in Pemba and nine seats in Unguja.
The Representatives are now worried what Commission would be trusted to rerun the election which was announced to be conducted after 90 days.
They said during the elections, all election supervisors signed all the election forms conceding the election was free and fair, but to their surprise the Chairman moved to discredit the presidential results.
“We have been issued with certificates recognising we have won the elections,” Nassoro Ahmed Mazrui said. “We want the Commission to resume work and announce the winner.”
He said the Reps are seriously concerned as to why the situation is treated differently when CCM loses in election results.
He explained that both local and international election observers agreed that this year’s elections were free and fair.
The Reps meanwhile maintained that they will not back down and there was no time for them to go back for election as announced by ZEC earlier.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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