Chadema seeks answers from NEC, Police

Dar es Salaam. Chadema on Saturday demanded answers from the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and the Police regarding seven issues linked to the October 28, General Election.

 NEC is supposed to disclose a company contracted to produce ballot papers; provide Voter Permanent Registry to political parties and introduce Results Management System to election stakeholders.

The electoral body is also required to respond to the development of the party’s complaints filed against CCM presidential candidate John Magufuli and provide copies of Results Declaration Forms to political parties.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Simon Sirro has been urged to sack Hai Officer Commanding District (OCD) and give answers to ‘escalated injustice and crackdown’ against the opposition.

The party’s secretary general, John Mnyika, said earlier reports made it in June that a South African firm, Ms Ren-Form CC, had been contracted to prepare and supply ballot papers, but recent reports have been citing Jama- na Printers for the job.

“NEC should tell Tanzanians which company between the two has been contracted for the job because we are aware that some of Jamana Printers executives are CCM members. We need assurance to satisfy ourselves with the safety of ballot papers,” he told reporters at the party headquarters.

He cautioned the electoral body to take the matters raised seriously to avoid future legal disputes like what happened in Kenya in 2017.

 He said the electoral body didn’t disclose the company’s name even during the Commission’s Procurement and Logistics Committee, which convened its meeting on October 8, this year.

 The former Kibamba Constituency MP said Chadema also wants to know when the Voter Permanent Registrar consisting of names of voters and their pictures would be accessible to political parties.

 “We need the document’s hardcopy instead of the soft copy pro- vided earlier consisting of names of voters only. This is an important document at polling stations in establishing voter eligibility, hence NEC should speed up the process,” he said.

Also, he demanded that the Election Results Management System should be introduced to political parties before training of election supervisors and assistants and effectively using it during elections.

 He said political parties’ experts of information and technology need to assess the system before training election supervisors and assistant supervisors of October 28 General Election.

 Mr Mnyika said Chadema wanted answers on complaints filed against CCM presidential candidate Magufuli for staging campaigns during the commissioning of the Mbezi Luis International Bus Terminal on Thursday.

“That wasn’t a CCM function; rather a government event which spent taxpayer’s money. But, Dr Magufuli campaigned for himself and the party candidates hence violating the electoral code of ethics,” he said, adding: “Apart from campaigning contrary to the released schedule he used state- owned resources; therefore, we filed complaints to the Commission’s Ethics Committee on Friday and gave the electoral body yet another trial.”

Regarding Election Results Declaration Forms, Mr Mnyika said NEC should provide political parties with copies of the document, saying denying some agents the document on Election Day will not be accepted.

 He said they were surprised by IGP Simon Sirro’s decision to form a committee to investigate violations on the Police General Order by Hai OCD.

He said the OCD had publicly told the party’s parliamentary candidate Freeman Mbowe that he would not win the election