Government unveils 184 civic polls supervisors

Dar es Salaam. The government has named 184 public officers who will supervise the 2019 civic polls in Mainland Tanzania on November 24.

The date was set after concluding the process to prepare regulations, procedures and guidelines and make them public through Kiswahili and English newspapers.

A public notice issued on Wednesday, September 11, 2019, by the minister of State in the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG) Selemani Jafo says 184 public officers have been selected to oversee the polls.

“They have been appointed in accordance with Sections 201A of the Local Government Elections Act (district authorities) and Section 87A (town authorities) when read together with Regulation 3 and 6(1) issued through government announcement number 371, 372, 373 and 374 of 2019,” reads the notice in part.

After going through the list of appointees which is also available in the PO-RALG website (www.tamisemi.go.tz), The Citizen has found that most of them are heads of departments in respective district and town councils.

The move fulfils the government’s promise to do away with traditional method of using district and town executive directors as returning officers.

“All the appointees will take an oath on Thursday, September 12, 2019 at their respective regions under the coordination of the regional administrators,” reads the notice in part.

Unveiling date for this year’s local polls during his meeting with regional commissioner’s last month in Dodoma, Mr Jafo said regulations demands that candidates should be sponsored by political parties with permanent registration.

He added that only eligible citizens will contest in the elections and they will be required to collect and fill in nomination forms 26 days before the polls. He said the forms will have to be returned seven days after being collected.