Redet to focus on four key areas in Tanzania’s 2020 General Elections
What you need to know:
The Research and Education for Democracy in Tanzania (Redet) has specified four areas it will focus at in the ongoing electoral processes to determine the extent to which they are credible, free, fair and peaceful.
Dar es Salaam. The Research and Education for Democracy in Tanzania (Redet) has specified four areas it will focus at in the ongoing electoral processes to determine the extent to which they are credible, free, fair and peaceful.
This, according to Redet, will be in light of national legislation and international standards for genuine democratic elections.
Under the project dubbed; the Tanzania Electoral Processes Observation (TEPO) covering the period July 2020 to April 30, 2021, Redet aims to determine the degree to which elections adhered to the national legislation, universal principles and qualities of genuine democratic elections.
The agency is also keen to detect the fairness of elections administration in general, especially the impartiality of the legal infrastructure, the electoral management bodies and the state machinery for law and order.
Having received over Sh4.1 billion from both the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Danish International Development Agency, Redet is set to assess the fairness in the allocation and use of relevant state resources by the contending political parties, especially public media.
The institution which is under the Tanzania Election Monitoring Committee (Temco) will also assess the extent to which the election can be said to have been credible, free and fair.
Speaking to journalists, Redet chairman and Head of the election observation mission, Prof Rwekaza Mukandala said the move was intended to support genuine democratic elections and strengthening of democratic institutions in the country.
“We have deployed long term observers to 200 constituencies (out of the 264 constituencies), 150 from Tanzania Mainland and in 50 Zanzibar constituencies. The group underwent an intensive two-day training at the end of last month,” he said.
He added: The secretariat ensured that it recruited 200 impartial and nonpartisan long term observers.
He said that on voting day, they will deploy a total of 3,260 short term observers at all sampled polling stations.
“Both long and short term observers will collect information related to the electoral processes using specific data collection tools designed for that purpose.”
