Author: NELLY MTEMA
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Chairman of the National Electoral Commission, (NEC) Retired Judge Semistocles Kaijage, has urged returning officers to maintain impartiality when discharging their supervisory role to avoid conflicts.
The call from the top most boss of the national electoral body comes almost three months before the country goes to the polls to elect the president, members of parliament and councilors.
Under the laws, rules and regulations that govern elections in the country, District and Municipal Executive Directors serve as returning officers.
The national electoral body has this year chosen Wednesday, October 28 as the voting day, the first decision ever by NEC since the country adopted multiparty democracy in 1995.
During the meeting with executive directors, Judge Kaijage said returning officers have a noble task of ensuring that the forthcoming general elections are free and fair by addressing abnormalities and errors and rectify them before the D-Day.
“Come up with good plans on how you will run the general elections, know the geographical positions and see if they will impact the elections in any way and strategise for free and fair conduct of the elections,” he stressed.
He underscored the need for impartiality by not associating themselves with any political party while observing elections ethics which have just been released for guidance.
To avoid uncalled for complaints, Retired Judge Kaijage directed the returning officers to engage and involve all parties in all stages as well as to save and document minutes for reference when needed.
He told the returning officers that NEC would do its best to ensure that all voting materials will be in respective destinations in the specified time for distribution in all areas for smooth operations of the election process.
However, he said, the returning officers must verify against delivery to ensure that they match the numbers and in case of shortage, notify the national electoral body for swift intervention.
This year’s Presidential, parliamentarians and councilors general election has 7,326,552 new voters, 30,487 were scrapped off the permanent register while the number of voters expected to take part in October general elections is 29 million.
As for election observers, NEC has endorsed 97 civil society organisations, while for international observers, the foreign affairs ministry has sent the invitation to relevant missions.
As far as voter education is concerned, NEC has okayed 245 Mainland and seven Isles’ civil society organisations, stressing that the education offered should be in accordance with the issued guidelines.
