Are Election Observers Political Tourists?
By Kiangiosekazi wa Nyoka, 17th September 2010
AS THE days for the General Elections are drawing nearer, the more we are experiencing the worse campaigning ever to be seen in this country! Having expected what was to happen, necessary precautions were taken such as having Memorandum of Understanding for the political parties taking part in the general elections, the Law on Election Expenses Act, yet the worse is happening! What went wrong?
I wrote in one of my previous columns that the National Electoral Commission would end up being accused of this and that. But not only has the election committee, the Registrar of Political parties also has been in the firing line not to spare the High Court where the maverick politician Reverend Christopher Mtikila is demanding his right to stand for presidency of this country.
Despite also several calls to the press to practise their professional line not on aligning to any of contesting parties yet we see some of papers slanted to certain parties. It is not a secret, if you want to read favourable comments for such a party, go to that paper! Where are we heading to?
I have an experience on this particularly here in the Land of the Brave! What is happening currently in Bongo is exactly what happened here in the last yearís (November) General Elections where Justice Lewis Makame was the Head of the AU Observation Team. The political landscape in Namibia changed completely after the emergence of the new political party, Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) led by a faction of disgruntled politicians who broke away from Swapo.
RDP was perceived to be a party poised to provide a strong challenge to the all powerful ruling Swapo Party! And this was not welcomed by some of the diehard Swapo politicians. The days running to the elections were very traumatic as what is happening now in Bongo. How do we compare the two General Elections, the Bongo one and that one of the Land of the Brave? In Bongo, the surprise nomination of Dr Wilbrod Slaa to stand for Presidency on behalf of Chadema brought in a new flavour in Tanzaniaís General Elections!
It cannot be compared with that one of 1995 where Augustine Mrema was a contestant for NCCR-Mageuzi. Mrema was merely castigating in general corrupt tendencies while Dr Slaa for the last five years has been discrediting the CCM government on corrupt officials from within the Parliament. That makes him to curve a certain percentage of electorates reducing the usual landslide victory to CCM. That was also the fear of SWAPO to RDP and RDP clearly vowed to decrease the margin of two thirds majority of SWAPO representation to the Parliament. This was not taken lightly by the Swapo ruling party. What followed next?
The political campaigns were very chaotic, in some areas there were some skirmishes amongst the two opposing parties. In the North of the country, in particular an area known as Omusati Region where it is a stronghold of SWAPO, the RDP was roughed up and prevented from campaigning? What about smearing campaigns? Yes indeed, that also happened. It was alleged that RDP was inspired and assisted by imperialist agencies. The RDP hit back with hard hitting unsubstantiated stories but again, the damage had already been done!
The printing of the ballot papers also brought in another hitch. The Swapo printing press, Namprint won the tender to print the ballot papers but this was seen as a ploy to cajole the opposition parties in readiness for mass vote stealing.
This was out ruled and the tender was given to South African companies. Come on the Election Day! The election took two days and the results were announced after 48 hours following the pressure from the public. Ironically some of the Observers left the country before the results were out. The Observers were not spared on the blame as most usually they come with stereo type statement ìthat elections were free and fair despite the few anomalies that could not interfere with the results of the elections.
With this kind of findings, the Observer Teams earned a name of being political tourists in these elections as they only come on the election days and not actually during the campaigns. The opposition parties did not accept the results. The nine opposition parties who lost rejected the results and appeal to the High Court to do the auditing of the votes to satisfy themselves if they could proceed with the case after seeing the ballots.
They partially won this appeal and allowed to do the tedious work of checking the ballot boxes and later were convinced that there was a case to present. Unfortunately they were late in presenting their appeal after examining the ballots. They were supposed to present their appeal by 15 hrs on the material day but presented at 17 hours and the High Court stroked the case out the court roll and lost case as it was not heard. They further appealed to the Supreme Court and this week they won the appeal and that the High Court was instructed to hear the merits of the case.
It took three months for the Supreme Court to come up with the decision and actually the appealing parties seized the opportunity during the SADC Summit which was held here to demonstrate on the delay of their appeal. Is this what we want to happen in Tanzania? Not at all! Those people entrusted with responsibilities of seeing that everything goes smoothly in the running up to elections up to the Election Day should do the needful to avert the possible crisis.
I wrote in one of my previous columns that the National Electoral Commission would end up being accused of this and that. But not only has the election committee, the Registrar of Political parties also has been in the firing line not to spare the High Court where the maverick politician Reverend Christopher Mtikila is demanding his right to stand for presidency of this country.
Despite also several calls to the press to practise their professional line not on aligning to any of contesting parties yet we see some of papers slanted to certain parties. It is not a secret, if you want to read favourable comments for such a party, go to that paper! Where are we heading to?
I have an experience on this particularly here in the Land of the Brave! What is happening currently in Bongo is exactly what happened here in the last yearís (November) General Elections where Justice Lewis Makame was the Head of the AU Observation Team. The political landscape in Namibia changed completely after the emergence of the new political party, Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) led by a faction of disgruntled politicians who broke away from Swapo.
RDP was perceived to be a party poised to provide a strong challenge to the all powerful ruling Swapo Party! And this was not welcomed by some of the diehard Swapo politicians. The days running to the elections were very traumatic as what is happening now in Bongo. How do we compare the two General Elections, the Bongo one and that one of the Land of the Brave? In Bongo, the surprise nomination of Dr Wilbrod Slaa to stand for Presidency on behalf of Chadema brought in a new flavour in Tanzaniaís General Elections!
It cannot be compared with that one of 1995 where Augustine Mrema was a contestant for NCCR-Mageuzi. Mrema was merely castigating in general corrupt tendencies while Dr Slaa for the last five years has been discrediting the CCM government on corrupt officials from within the Parliament. That makes him to curve a certain percentage of electorates reducing the usual landslide victory to CCM. That was also the fear of SWAPO to RDP and RDP clearly vowed to decrease the margin of two thirds majority of SWAPO representation to the Parliament. This was not taken lightly by the Swapo ruling party. What followed next?
The political campaigns were very chaotic, in some areas there were some skirmishes amongst the two opposing parties. In the North of the country, in particular an area known as Omusati Region where it is a stronghold of SWAPO, the RDP was roughed up and prevented from campaigning? What about smearing campaigns? Yes indeed, that also happened. It was alleged that RDP was inspired and assisted by imperialist agencies. The RDP hit back with hard hitting unsubstantiated stories but again, the damage had already been done!
The printing of the ballot papers also brought in another hitch. The Swapo printing press, Namprint won the tender to print the ballot papers but this was seen as a ploy to cajole the opposition parties in readiness for mass vote stealing.
This was out ruled and the tender was given to South African companies. Come on the Election Day! The election took two days and the results were announced after 48 hours following the pressure from the public. Ironically some of the Observers left the country before the results were out. The Observers were not spared on the blame as most usually they come with stereo type statement ìthat elections were free and fair despite the few anomalies that could not interfere with the results of the elections.
With this kind of findings, the Observer Teams earned a name of being political tourists in these elections as they only come on the election days and not actually during the campaigns. The opposition parties did not accept the results. The nine opposition parties who lost rejected the results and appeal to the High Court to do the auditing of the votes to satisfy themselves if they could proceed with the case after seeing the ballots.
They partially won this appeal and allowed to do the tedious work of checking the ballot boxes and later were convinced that there was a case to present. Unfortunately they were late in presenting their appeal after examining the ballots. They were supposed to present their appeal by 15 hrs on the material day but presented at 17 hours and the High Court stroked the case out the court roll and lost case as it was not heard. They further appealed to the Supreme Court and this week they won the appeal and that the High Court was instructed to hear the merits of the case.
It took three months for the Supreme Court to come up with the decision and actually the appealing parties seized the opportunity during the SADC Summit which was held here to demonstrate on the delay of their appeal. Is this what we want to happen in Tanzania? Not at all! Those people entrusted with responsibilities of seeing that everything goes smoothly in the running up to elections up to the Election Day should do the needful to avert the possible crisis.
Let us make use of all the precautions which were deliberately introduced to check up all these unprecedented eventualities. Tanzania is known for its political maturity and incomparable tolerance that supports its peaceful coexistence irrespective of several tribes and religions differences.
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