Government, parliament committee differ on returning officers

Dodoma. The use of district executive directors as returning officers in their respective districts resurfaced in Parliament yesterday when a House committee expressed disagreement with the government on the matter.

The parliament began debating three bills introduced last November that propose reforms to the electoral system.

The bill on Presidential, Members of Parliament and Councillors’ Elections maintains that the district, municipal and township executive directors will be the returning officers in their respective areas despite resistance from the opposition parties, which argue that the presidential appointees cannot be neutral.

Presenting its report on the bills, the Parliament’s Governance, Constitution and Legal Affairs Committee said yesterday that it differed with the government over the matter.

“Our committee was of the view that the new law should not categorically mention the executive directors as returning officers in their respective areas. Instead, it could put in place conditions for appointing a senior public servant or any other person to monitor the elections,” said the committee chairperson, Joseph Mhagama.

“The government maintained that there is a need for the law to list the executives as returning officers,” he said, adding that the government cited a Court of Appeal ruling that stated that their involvement in the elections does not violate the constitution.

Mr Mhagama said his team has, however, prepared an amendment schedule that proposes the use of any senior public servant or any other person who qualifies as the returning officer or assistant.

“There are executive directors who sometimes disqualify as returning officers,” he said.

The use of district executive directors is one of the contentious issues in the Tanzanian electoral system, which the opposition says creates loopholes for the ruling party to win.

In their proposals to the committee during the public hearing, opposition parties Chadema and ACT Wazalendo and other civil society organisations demanded the ban on the use of executive directors as returning officers, claiming that “they are nowadays appointed by politicians who failed in elections.”

“These are presidential appointees who should not supervise the elections. There is a conflict of interest,” the parties said.

ACT Wazalendo suggested that the National Electoral Commission should appoint its officials who will be responsible for monitoring the elections and should be banned from engaging in politics.

On the other hand, the ruling party, Chama cha Mapinduzi, stated that the executive directors should not necessarily be mentioned in the law, even though the court ruling allowed them to continue supervising the polls.

The government presented three bills, which will be debated in the House until Friday. The bills include the National Electoral Commission (NEC) Bill, the President, Parliamentarians, and Councillors Bill, and the Political Parties Affairs Bill.
Some stakeholders said that much of the public opinion was not included in the bills that gained public attention since their tabling last November.

“If the opinions were considered, then hardly 20 percent,” said Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) executive director Ms Anna Henga.

“I expected this to happen because if they were to consider the proposals from the public, it would require overhauling the bills and amending the constitution,” she said.

Chadema secretary general John Mnyika said the party’s opinions were ignored.

“The bills did not meet our expectations. We were pushing for reforms to allow challenging of presidential election results in court, independent candidate and independent electoral commission,” he said, adding that constitutional amendments were necessary to meet the expectations.

Last week, thousands of people protested against the bills in the largest public demonstration since the government lifted a ban on opposition political rallies a year ago.

Chadema organised the rally in Dar es Salaam, demanding the withdrawal of the contentious electoral reforms proposed by the government. Tanzania is expected to hold the election of local governments this year and the general election next year.

The civil polls are supervised by the ministry of State in the President’s Office, which is responsible for local government authorities, but there has been demand for reforms so that the elections are handled by the National Electoral Commission.

However, the House committee said that such a change could not be accommodated because the government argued that preparations were in advanced stages for this year’s elections.