Author: FAUSTINE KAPAMA
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Judiciary of Tanzania has set four months for determining each election petition, which will be filed before the High Court of Tanzania, following this year’s general election scheduled for October 28, 2020.
This was revealed in the capital city of Dodoma by Principal Judge, Dr Eliezer Feleshi, when winding up the first phase of training for judicial officers in how to conduct election proceedings for Judges of the High Court of Tanzania.
Since the judiciary has shown such willingness, the principal judge urged all judges to be ready at any time to hear the cases, according to a statement issued by the Directorate of Information and Communications of the Judiciary of Tanzania yesterday.
In the 2015 general election each case was heard and concluded in six months of its filing.
Dr Feleshi said the Court would appoint any judge to hear election proceedings, thus every judge should be prepared to discharge important duties.
“Training you have received aims at creating an enabling environment so that any judge who is assigned to hear the proceedings originating from the general election should be ready at all times,” stressed the principal judge.
He also directed judges in charge of the High Court also to be prepared for the process and ensure they organised all deputy registrars and magistrates so that they could be ready to hear the cases in the stipulated time.
The principal judge, however, directed pending cases opened in courts, which were not related to elections to continue being heard and completed on time despite the cases arising from the general election.
In addition, Dr Feleshi called on all judges to maintain cooperation to care for and love one another at all times since the judiciary was like one family.
The training workshop, which was held in the capital city of Dodoma, has helped to build the capacity of judicial officers and prepare them for the dispensation of justice, following the upcoming general election of President, Members of Parliament (MPs) and councillors.
Such training organised by the Judiciary of Tanzania in collaboration with the Institute of Judicial Administration Lushoto (IJA) ended on Wednesday bringing together some judges of the High Court of Tanzania.
The next phase will also have other judges of the High Court of Tanzania and on August 24, 2020 another training workshop that will involve registrars, deputy registrars and resident magistrates in charge of the Resident Magistrates’ Courts.
There will be another kind of training to involve justices of the Court of Appeal from September 2-4, 2020 in Morogoro Region. Resident magistrates in charge of district courts will also receive training later at IJA.
Training facilitators are some of the current and retired justices of the Court of Appeal and the High Court, deputy registrars, magistrates and facilitators from the National Electoral Commission.
Others are facilitators from the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties and the Law Reform Commission, key stakeholders in electoral issues.
