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Chadema could lose slots in EALA as deadline looms

Wednesday April 12 2017
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Opposition party Chadema supporters. PHOTO|FILE

Tanzania's main opposition party Chadema has only one week to present a list of hopefuls for the East Africa Legislative Assembly for the national parliament to choose two.

Speaker of the National Assembly Job Ndugai said if the party fails to submit the list this week, parliament could choose members of another party.
Chadema still has two slots to fill in the regional assembly after its preferred candidates Lawrence Masha and Ezekia Wenje failed to marshal the requisite support in the House.

Mr Masha got 126 yes votes against 198 no votes; while Mr Wenje got 124 yes votes against 174 no votes.

The Tanzania parliament has 391 members, with the ruling CCM having 275 members and it got six out of the nine EALA slots for Tanzania. Chadema, which has 72 MPs, got two slots and CUF, which has 42 MPs, got one slot.

On Thursday, Mr Ndugai said the Clerk of the National Assembly will announce the date for selecting the Chadema candidates.

Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe said the party intends to take the matter to court, saying CCM MPs should not be involved in choosing EALA members for Chadema and other opposition parties.

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The decision by the House to allow four candidates proposed by CUF, two from each of the antagonistic camps, was also heavily opposed in by the opposition MPs, in vain.

CUF is divided into two camps, with chairman Ibrahim Lipumba and his supporters maintaining greater support on the mainland and secretary-general Seif Sharif Hamad maintaining that of Zanzibar. 
The votes by MPs gave way to the election of Habib Mnyaa, who belongs to the Lipumba camp, which critics say the ruling party feels happy to work with. 
Critics are now proposing a rethink of the procedure by which EALA gets its members from partner states, after the election in Tanzania was characterised by chaos based on partisan interests. 

Lawyer and chairman of the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition Onesmo ole Ngurumwa said the system needs to be overhauled to stop it being manipulated by the interests of a majority party in parliament. 

“The current procedure makes the process serve partisan rather than national interests. There should be room for candidates from civil society and even independent candidates to become EALA members without having to get votes from MPs,” he said. 

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