NEC explains on key forms for agents

Dar es Salaam. The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has reiterated that Forms Nos. 14 and 16 are important documents for agents representing political parties at the 2020 General Election slated for tomorrow.
The two forms provide agents with an opportunity to express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction on the voting process at polling stations, therefore helping candidates to understand the situation on the ground.
Presenting a paper during a pre-election briefing for journalists here, NEC’s legal officer Athumani Kimia called on the  agents  to fill in the forms most carefully.
“The two forms could help candidates understand challenges that occurred during the voting process - and any efforts made to resolve grievances and therefore providing final  remarks over the election,” he said.
Mr Kimia said the content of the documents would inform candidates on the next course of action in case there are  flaws.
This includes filing cases in court, where necessary.
According to him, since ballot boxes remain sealed for the next six months, courts can use the documents and ballot as important evidence in decision-making.
He said Form No. 14 is signed to indicate satisfaction and dissatisfaction on the polling station’s general setup, preparations and the voting process.
“Agents are supposed to provide reasons for displeasure on the station setups and the voting process and the polling station’s supervisor would be required to provide explanations on measures taken to address the grievances,” he said.
Form No. 16 consists of three parts: A, B and C. In part A, party agents are required to state if they were satisfied with the number of ballot boxes and whether they were opened and inspected or not.
In Part B, the agents are supposed to comment on the number of ballot papers counted from each ballot box after votes have been cast.
In Part C, the agents are supposed to express their opinions on the vote counting process at the polling stations.
“The party agents should lodge complaints in each of the three parts - and the election supervisors are  required to explain steps taken  to resolve any problems,” he said.
He emphasised that the agents have the right to leave polling stations with copies of the forms, duly filled in and signed by the agents and the supervisors for authentification.  But, the Civic United Front (CUF) campaign manager, Mr Juma Kilaghai, said the party’s capacity building of the  agents has been  adversely affected by shortage of funds.
“Currently, we are struggling to figure out  how our agents will be paid, because of the serious shortage of funds we are facing. No training has been conducted - and, instead, our district officers will try to do everything within their capacity before polling day,” he said.

For his part, his ACT-Wazalendo party counterpart, Mr Emmanuel Mvula, said their party has trained their agents countrywide on their roles at the polling stations.
“Our worries remain on whether the documents will be available in the polling stations - and if the election supervisors would be ready and willing to provide the agents with the documents,” he said.

He said their doubts come considering that some political opposition candidates were denied nomination forms by the very same election supervisors - and that many other prospective candidates were unfairly disqualified, and later denied appeal forms.
“We are not particularly confident with the Electoral Commission on this. Our agents have been instructed to keep proper records in their notebooks for future use,” he said.
However, the CCM secretary of organisation, Mr Pereira Ame Silima, declined to comment on the issue.

Political parties have accused the electoral body of conspiring with CCM to deny agents of opposition parties the documents.

On October 20,  NEC instructed political parties to take their agents to division headquarters instead of wards offices in order to take an oath, leading to serious budgetary burden to most parties.

At the end of the exercise, a good number of agents from the opposition parties did not take oaths, triggering the opposition parties’ lack of representation tomorrow.
In his campaign, Chadema’s presidential candidate Tundu Lissu has been reiterating that party’s agents should be sworn in, given access to polling stations and be provided with result declaration forms in order for peace to prevail.