Reinstate our candidates, ACT-Wazalendo demands

Dar es Salaam. ACT-Wazalendo has asked the electoral commissions in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar to reinstate its aspirants who were barred from participating in the October 28 elections this year.
The expelled aspirants include the party’s parliamentary and councillorship candidates who,  according to the electoral commissions,  lacked qualifications to participate in the elections.
According to ACT-Wazalendo, 14 out of its 50 nominated parliamentary aspirants in Zanzibar were barred by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) while in Tanzania Mainland, only 104 out of its 168 nominated parliamentary candidates were given the nod to take part in the coming elections.
“There are various dirty technics that have been used by the electoral authorities to expel our candidates, something which is against the election regularities,” claimed ACT-Wazalendo leader  Zitto Kabwe when he spoke to journalists yesterday in Dar es Salaam. He added: “We will not accept to see any of our candidates being expelled from the elections.” According to Mr Kabwe, the opposition party has written a letter to the National Electoral Commission (NEC) over mistreatment of its candidates in the constituencies by the returning officers.
Among other complaints, ACT-Wazalendo has complained that the returning officers did not issue written documents to inform the party why they expelled some of its candidates.