By Sylivester Ernest, The Political Platform Reporter
Dar es Salaam. Expulsion of Wawi MP Hamad Rashid Mohamed from Civic United Front (CUF) last week has exposed deeply embedded dictatorship within the rank and file of Tanzania’s political institutions, analysts observed.
To continue hoarding enormous powers and enjoying chances of abusing them at will, political party leaders deliberately sidestep a provision for setting leadership time limit.

Political parties’ constitutions in the country and those of the opposition, in particular, are categorically silent on complying with the provision entrenched in the supreme law of the land.

CUF had announced about a week ago that it had ejected Hamad Rashid and three others in the decision reached during the January 4 extraordinary meeting of the opposition party held in Zanzibar.

The announcement has attracted contrasting opinions from political analysts, politicians and other stakeholders in the political fraternity, arguing that the CUF decision had an impact on the country’s political landscape.

CUF deputy secretary-general (Mainland) Julisu Mtatiro pointed an accusing finger at the embattled former Leader of the Official Opposition in the 9th Parliament allegedly for washing the party’s dirty linen in public and organising illegal meetings, as he spread propaganda in his bid to vie for the secretary-general’s post. First Vice President in the Zanzibar Government of National Unity Seif Shariff Hamad doubles as the CUF secretary-general, the post to which he has been clinging since 1999.

Mtatiro further accused Hamad Rashid of publishing an official document in a book titled Yaliyojiri, which the Wawi MP recently authored. Expelled along with the Wawi lawmaker, according to Mtatiro, are Doyo Hassan Doyo, Shoka Khamis Juma and Juma Said Sanani.

But Hamad Rashid told reporters a day after his expulsion that he was legally still the CUF bona fide member and that he would continue strengthening his party, among others. He complained of being victimised mainly due to his keen interest in facing Shariff Hamad in the party’s elections slated for 2014.

Commenting on the CUF power wrangle, Kigoma North MP on a Chadema ticket Zitto Kabwe condemned the opposition party’s decision, saying it was unhealthy for the country’s nascent democracy. Pleading with the CUF conflicting sides to go back to the reconciliation table, Zitto queried:

“If Shariff Hamad managed to bury the hatchet between him and Salmin Amour and Amani Abeid Karume, why shouldn’t he resolve such a trivial crisis amicably?”

Shariff Hamad had accused the former Presidents of Zanzibar of robbing his victory in previous general elections. Zitto said he believed Hamad Rashid had his own shortcomings as any other human being did, but he too had his positive side.

“CUF should revisit its decision to deregister Hamad Rashid, this is my earnest appeal,” Zitto urged.
With lack of periodic elections and a provision for leaders’ time limit in political parties, Shariff Hamad had gained a massive clout in CUF, Paschal Mdukula with the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) Department of Linguistics and Foreign Languages said. “It is an open secret that one cannot wage a war against Shariff Hamad within the opposition party and yet expect to win…  And take it from me, it is very dangerous for the country’s democracy,” Mdukula cautioned.

History had since early 1990s shown that whoever attempted to challenge Shariff Hamad ended up losing his post if not having his or her membership stripped off altogether, he recalled. He likened Hamad Rashid’s fate to that of Kigoma North MP on NCCR ticket David Kafulila, who was also deregistered about three weeks ago allegedly for planning a rebellion against his party’s national chairman James Mbatia. Kafulila has since resorted to court in his desperate attempt to rescue his parliamentary membership.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a former CUF top leader said in a telephone interview with the Political Platform that the party’s decision had shocked him, advising Hamad Rashid to consider forming an alternative  party for him to continue serving the  people if he so wished.

“With the kind of a vision Hamad Rashid has, there is no way he can remain in the party (CUF). “He is capable of soliciting funds from within and outside the country for the development of the party… it is astonishing, however, to see the secretary-general and his lieutenants fail to acknowledge this fact,” he wondered. The anonymous former CUF leader said he trusted Hamad Rashid and knew him as a leader whose political ambitions were likely to succeed with or without CUF.

As parties appear to take advantage of a loophole they have detected in the Constitution, Registrar of Political Parties John Tendwa said the spate of stripping off party members of their parliamentary posts was not only denting the development of democracy, but was also robbing the electorate of its rights. A lawmaker, according to the Supreme law of the land, loses his or her seat once he or she is stripped off his party membership.

Opposition political parties, in particular, should adopt the provision of this country’s Constitution, which limits administrations’ terms.

Analysts believe incorporation of the provision allowing for party members to exchange posts democratically would not only do justice to the political institutions alone, but also to the country’s democracy at large.

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