AfricaPress-Tanzania: CCM parliamentary nominees led by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, have started racing against the National Electoral Committee (NEC) nomination timetable by picking forms from electoral body’s offices across the country.
Candidates will be required to spend only four days in filling in the forms, including seeking sponsors in their constituencies, before returning them to the national electoral body.
According the NEC nomination timetable, all candidates are required to return the forms by August 25, 2020 at 4pm latest. The General Election campaigns are scheduled to kick off on August 26, 2020.
Premier Majaliwa picked the nomination forms in Ruangwa District while Mr Innocent Bashungwa collected the nomination forms in Karagwe District Council in Kagera Region.
Social media was awash with pictures of CCM parliamentary candidates collecting nomination forms from the national electoral body’s offices in the districts.
The nomination of CCM parliamentary candidates this year has been strategically conducted as the timing denied losers the chance to cross over to opposition parties.
CCM announced its candidates for parliamentary seats on Thursday with new and old faces featuring in the new list while several bigwigs lost to young blood.
The Party’s Publicity and Ideology Secretary, Mr Humphrey Polepole, said that the appointing authority had taken into account various factors, including trustworthiness, hard work and selflessness.
On Friday some academicians and some politicians commended the entire process and procedures used by CCM in nominating its winning team of the parliamentary candidates for the forthcoming General Election, saying it demonstrated high level of political and democratic maturity.
They said that the process of obtaining the candidates had been participatory from the grassroots to the national level party members.
Tanzania has a total of 264 constituencies, of which 214 are in Tanzania Mainland while 50 in Zanzibar.
