By EMMANUEL ONYANGO

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Tanzania police in Kigoma region refused to allow the ACT-Wazalendo party to hold a public meeting.

The party’s meeting was slated to be held at Mwanga Centre grounds in Kigoma municipality on Friday.

The move comes at a time when the country is preparing for a general election in October.

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) will from this week start a national drive to update data and registration details of all eligible voters.

The government has therefore imposed a rules that all political public meetings be organised under the authorisation and strict supervision of the police.
This was the reason given for denying ACT-Wazalendo and member of parliament for Kigoma Urban, Zitto Kabwe permission to hold the rally. The police say they served Mr Kabwe with a letter of suspension of his intended political rally.

The letter written by District Police Commanding Officer Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) R. M. Mayunga with reference number KIG/A.24/60/VOL.1/114 said, that, “the police force in the district had indefinitely suspended the party’s political meeting mainly for security reasons.

The letter added that the lawmaker “is not allowed to hold any meeting, neither is he required to continue making any other preparations for further meetings.”

Last year in August the government introduced punitive measures against the party after denying it permission to hold political meetings in the constituency. 

Efforts by The EastAfrican to contact the ACT-Wazalendo’s Secretary for Ideology and Publicity Ado Shaibu were futile by press time.