NEC says can’t rush Katiba referendum

Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC),
Retired Judge Damian Lubuva. PHOTO|FILE 

Dar es Salaam/Arusha/Zanzibar. Tanzanians may not go to a referendum to approve the proposed new constitution any time soon, according to the chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Retired Judge Damian Lubuva.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Justice Lubuva cast doubt on the country’s capacity to mount a referendum now. His remarks came as the opposition accused President Jakaya Kikwete of taking them for a ride in the negotiations on a consensus before the final draft of the proposed constitution is put together.

The Chadema deputy national chairman (mainland), Prof Abdallah Safari, claimed President Kikwete failed to honour his word on issues they discussed at a meeting in August hosted by Tanzania Centre for Democracy. “We were surprised to see the president showing all signs of going against our agreement,” Prof Safari said. “It seems he was taking us for a ride and now wishes to hold the referendum before the 2015 elections.”

Prof Safari told reporters yesterday at the Daraja Bovu party offices in Zanzibar that Mr Kikwete and other leaders of political parties agreed that the referendum be held after the General Election. “The President is not being fair to wananchi,” he added. “He does not stand by what he says.”

Yesterday, Judge Lubuva told The Citizen that the electoral body would not supervise or conduct any public voting exercise before the task of updating the voter register. “Going into a referendum or any election without updating the register would lead to protests from politicians and the general public,” he said in a telephone interview.

He was responding to a question on whether NEC was prepared for a referendum. Section 31-(1) of the Constitutional Review Act states: “For purposes of validation of the provisions of the proposed Constitution, there shall be a referendum to be organised, conducted and supervised by the National Electoral Commission in collaboration with the Zanzibar Electoral Commission.” There were suggestions that a referendum could be in the offing during the Wednesday handing over in Dodoma of the proposed Katiba to President Kikwete and Zanzibar President of Dr Ali Mohamed Shein. Mr Kikwete, who received the document from the chairman of the Constituent Assembly, Mr Samuel Sitta, said a team of experts in government would work on a plan for the referendum.

The president hinted they were looking at all possibilities, including whether a referendum could be held using the old voter register. “They are asking why voters go into elections without an update of the poll register when an MP dies,” said President Kikwete, who is keen to deliver the new Constitution before his tenure ends in 2015.

The matter is a legal issue that will require Parliament’s intervention as the review law demands that a referendum be held within 84 days of delivery of the proposed constitution to the president.

The first hint that a referendum could be on the cards ahead of 2015 was dropped by PM Mizengo Pinda when he wound up the CA. He told the assembly that it would be a good thing for the head of state to have the new law in time for the elections.

But activists, political scientists and some members of the public yesterday criticised President Kikwete’s speech and accused him of burying his head in the sand.

Many of them felt Mr Kikwete needs to find a middle ground between the interests of those who pushed for the finalisation of the proposed Katiba and those who held an alternative view--even if they were the minority in the eyes of the MCAs.

University of Dar es Salaam Lecturer Mohamed Bakar said it was not wise to push through a document derived from a highly divisive and questionable process. “It will be a one-sided constitution seen as favouring the ruling CCM--whose leaders took the process as a do-or-die issue,” he said.

The Citizen