Warioba reelected lawmaker after contestant files petition

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It took a court battle for the former Prime Minister to be reelected as the Bunda lawmaker

Dar es Salaam. After the October 1990 General Election was held and its results were made public, petitions were filed by parliamentary seat contestants, who were not satisfied with the results.
The storm of the petitions did not spare Bunda Constituency, whose parliamentary seat winner was former Prime Minister and First Vice President Joseph Warioba, who by that time was Regional Administration and Local Government minister.
The National Electoral Commission (NEC)’s bench of judges, who were obligated to hear petitions under retired Judge Lameck Mfalila of the Court of Appeal, had also Judge Salehe Abdallah Dahoma of the High Court of Zanzibar, Bernadetta Kunambia and Mohamed Faki Mohamed.
On September 18, 1991 the bench sat to hear a petition by Ramadhani Manyama Mkondya against Warioba as both contested for the Bunda parliamentary seat.
On hearing the petition, the bench was told that all the students of Ikizu Secondary School, even those who had not become of age, were forced to register and vote for Joseph Warioba.
One of the school’s four students, who were brought before the bench, was a Form Two student, Daudi Sanjura, who said their second master, Mr Stanley Mwakahira, was the one who forced him and all of school mates to do that.
Sanjura told the bench, led by Judge Lameck Mfalila and assisted by Judge Saleh Dahoma and Independent Lawyer Felician Mahatane, that Mwakahira assembled and directed them to register and that had those aged under 18 would refused, they would have got the cane.
Sanjura, led by the petitioner, Mkondya, said their teacher in question, who was, however, transferred to Arusha Region, assembled them again on the eve of the polls and said to them, “Tomorrow is the voting day. So, I’m asking all of you to vote for Joseph Sinde Warioba.”
Sanjura, who, in 1990, was aged 16, said despite Mwakahira being fierce, he was the one responsible for all matters at the school since their school head was not available most of the time. He said sometimes Mwakahira was responsible for finding them food from Bunda or Musoma.
When cross-examined by Warioba’s lawyer, Syprian Kahangwa from Mwanza, the witness testified that when he went to vote at a polling station he was faked to be aged at 18.
The fifth witness in the petition case, Ludovi Chikongoye, who was aged 53, told the NEC bench that for many years in the history of parliamentary elections in the country he had never seen before such strange things as done by the respondent’s supporters.
Chikongoye said to the bench that when residents waited for the contestants for the Bunda parliamentary seat on October 27, 1990 at a campaign rally held at the Balili Primary School, Warioba arrived with a bang in a convoy of cars with lights on and was received with applause and ululations as Prime Minister and First Vice President.
However, he said Mkondya, who was the first to arrive at the rally, was not received as Warioba was, explaining that when latter arrived a nice table covered with a white cloth was set for him, but “for Mkondya just a small table placed at the edge was set for him.”
Chikongoye further told the bench that campaign supervisor Bitha Salumu took away a mike from Mkondya on account that the latter failed to abide by the election manifesto when he said, “Warioba is not the Prime Minister, but he is his opponent aspirant because both were picked by Chama Cha Mapinduzi ... that is when chaos erupted and a mike was taken away from Mkondya, who was also booed at by supporters, who were prepared.”
Before the bench in the packed Musoma Cultural Centre (MCC) Hall in Musoma Town, Chikongoye had this to say, “In all of my life I had never seen before such strange things as those happened in Bunda Constituency.”
On Monday October 21, Warioba lost his seat after the bench annulled the results of the constituency parliamentary seat. During the October 1990 polls, Warioba emerged the winner of the seat after scooping 35,522 votes against Mkondya’s 4,552.
In a decision that he read out for three hours and one minute, Judge Mfalila said that there was a violation of election regularities including deliberate conspiracy to violate the election.
However, Mfalila’s decision, which was also supported by two members of the bench, was opposed by independent lawyer Felician Mahatane, who was also a member of the bench.
Mahatane, despite concurring with fellow members of the bench in 13 arguments out of 15 presented by Mkondya, failed to agree with them on two arguments on claim that they were not legally justified.
One of the arguments he was against include that of the returning officer of Bunda Constituency refusing to tally votes as per section 80(2) of the National Elections Act no. 13 of 1985 as amended by the National Election Act of 1990.
Mahatame was also against the argument that Warioba, who was Prime Minister and First Vice President, used his position to harass his opponent in the whole period of 21 days of campaigns. However, in his decision that was announced and overheard outside the hall, Judge Mfalila said clearly that after a verification by some officers tasked with voting papers that were used in the election, it was discovered that there were some fake papers and fake voting books and that there were extra papers.
On the argument that Mkondya was harassed, two members of the bench concurred that the district political committee deliberately violated section 51(4) that stipulated that Chama Cha Mapinduzi, through its political committee, was the one responsible for supervising all campaign activities in the constituency. Judge Mfalila said the state was instead used.
Four days later, Warioba came out, saying that he was not satisfied with NEC’s decision of annulling his victory. He convened a press conference in his Mikocheni residence in the City of Dar es Salaam and told reporters that he would run again for the seat and that Bunda residents would decide.
As a lawyer, Warioba said he agreed with the bench’s decision that bent on procedural bases rather than constitutional bases. He clarified that once procedures, regulations and laws collided, a decision would be made by observing the country’s laws and Constitution.
“...Since I was the Prime Minister and First Vice President as they agreed in their decision on page 45, I had the right and I deserved to be treated as Prime Minister just as the Constitution stipulated,” said Warioba.
Complaining of NEC’s decision, Warioba said,’ “Which part of the world, not only in Tanzania, where president or prime minister is not treaded as he deserves during campaigns?” In its decision, NEC dealt with two arguments out of 14 to annul the results of the Bunda parliamentary seat election.

Warioba loses ministerial post
Following the annulment of his seat victory, Warioba was stripped of his ministerial post. Four days after the NEC decision, on October 25, President Ali Hassan Mwinyi reshuffled his Cabinet by placing the ministry of Regional Administration and Local Government under the Office of Prime Minister and First Vice President.
Due to the ministry’s changes, the Office of Prime Minister and First Vice President had to have two ministers of State namely, Edward Lowassa and Anna Abdallah. Amran Mayagila was appointed to replace Anna Abdallah as minister for Agriculture, Livestock Development and Cooperatives. Mayagila’s position of minister of State at the ministry of Defence and National Service was filled by Abdulrahman Kinana as the ministry continued to be under the President’s Office. On Monday January 20, 1992 the CCM National Executive Committee made the final nomination of contestants for the Bunda parliamentary seat. Those picked were Thomas Ndaro Bwire and Joseph Warioba. On January 29 Bwire announced to back out of the race, claiming that the leadership of his CCM party at the district level was supporting his opponent, Warioba. Bwire drafted a letter to NEC, informing it that he was harassed and humiliated by the party leadership in the district and that state organs did not take any legal action against the district chairperson, Munubi Salamu, after he (Bwire) had filed a case at Bunda Police Station on December 12, 1991.
Although he announced to withdraw from the race, NEC responded that it still recognised him (Bwire) as one of the contestants for the seat as per the National Election Act that stipulated that any aspirant was not allowed to back out midway after the final nomination was made by the National Executive Committee. The by-election was held on March 8, 1992. As it was in the October 28, 1990 polls, Warioba was again declared the winner of the seat after scooping 21,038 votes against Bwire’s 11,136.