Tanzania: NEC Responds to EU-EOM Report On 2015 Polls
Author:OMO Release Date: 2016年6月6日
The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has clarified on some of the issues that were addressed by the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM)'s Final Report on last year's general election.
NEC Elections Director Mr Ramadhani Kailima said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the EU-EOM was supposed to address issues managed by NEC according to laws and regulations of the commission and not those under the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC).
"Some issues outlined in the report were not managed by NEC and instead were under other authorities. For example, issues concerning the Zanzibar election is under the jurisdiction of ZEC," Mr Kailima pointed out.
The EU-EOM had pointed out in its report this week several shortcomings that need to be addressed on both the electoral framework and the administration of electoral process by the NEC and ZEC.
"The electoral management bodies did not provide full transparency regarding their decision-making processes, which includes the ZEC decision to annul the Zanzibar election results," the Mission had noted.
Following such move, the EU-EOM and other international observer missions expressed in a joint statement their great concern, requesting the ZEC "to provide evidence to justify this unprecedented decision".
However, Mr Kailima reiterated that the (EU-EOM) was supposed to observe the Union general election only, which is managed by NEC and not any other elections. He added that both ZEC and NEC perform their duties independently.
He said that if the proposed constitution was adopted, the observer would question why there was no independent candidate as such issues were under the constitution and not NEC.
The NEC director observed that the division of constituencies considered many factors, including geographical locations, compared to the report, which outlined that there is no ratio between one region and the other.
The report had further charged that the number of people in the regions was not equal. "We have tried to consider many factors in dividing regions and the number of people in each region," he reported.
Mr Kailima noted for the first time in Tanzania, election results were displayed on notice boards at the polling stations with the preliminary results of the presidential, parliamentary and local government (councillors) posted to ensure fair elections. He insisted that the election result sheets had been signed by parties' representatives before they were announced to the public.
On the issue of special seats, NEC said it did not announce the names before the elections as they had to know the total number of votes that corresponded to the five per cent obtained by the parties as per the requirement of the law.
He said that NEC has accepted the recommendations outlined by the EU-EOM Final Report and pledged to work on them to effect improvement in the coming general elections.
The commission has pledged to go through the five election laws and look into the possibility of adding more time for people to register in the Voter Registration Book.
On the Cybercrime Act, Mr Kailima said the recommendations on the matter should have been channelled to proper organs because NEC had no authority regarding the matter.
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