AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE East African Court of Justice (EACJ) on Wednesday dismissed an application by opposition parties that sought for the court’s order to restrain the Tanzania’s Attorney General from applying and using certain provisions of the Political Parties (Amendment) Act 2019.
Filed by in May last year by Mr Freeman Mbowe, Tanzania’s leader of the main opposition party and his four colleagues, application challenged the Act on grounds that it was placing unjustified restrictions on the freedom of association; being discriminative and restricting people’s right to participate in public affairs; denying people’s right to personal.
The applicants further maintained that the Act, contravenes with the principles of democracy, rule of law, good governance and human rights to which Tanzania has committed to abide by at the East African Community (EAC) Treaty, the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights.
According to the applicants, the application of the Act would put Applicants’ political parties in danger of being forced to formulate party policies, which are contrary to their founding ideology, belief and foundation; danger of losing members vide arbitrary suspension of membership and being denied right to participate into public affairs.
Delivered virtually by Justice Audace Ngiye, the EACJ held that for it to grant the orders sought in the Application, the effect will be to halt all activities relating to civic education with huge implications on the upcoming electoral process.
The Arusha based court further maintained that the country’s electoral timetable was currently quite constrained, hence halting some parts of it and throwing the electoral cycle into disarray.
It further held to preserve the current status quo with the Act remaining operational.
