Three
opposition parties with representation in Parliament have received President
Jakaya Kikwete’s end-of-month address which he issued on Friday last week with mixed reactions. They say the Head
of State left many questions unanswered, particularly on their demand to have
the Constitutional Review (Amendment) Bill taken back to Parliament. Due to this
uncertainly the three parties - Chadema, CUF and NCCR-Mageuzi - say their plan
to hold countrywide demonstrations this week remains intact, unless a clear announcement
that the Bill will not be signed is made public. The decision by the three
parties was made open on Saturday last week in Dar es
Salaam when they issued a joint communiqué by their technical
committee which was preceded by an indoor meeting of their leaders held at CUF
headquarters in Dar es Salaam.
Technical committee members of the three parties were John Mnyika (Chadema),
Abdul Kambaya (CUF) and Faustine Sungura (NCCR-Mageuzi). They told a press
conference on their standing points basing on three major issues, one of which was
to request the president to arrange a particular day to meet with opposition
party leaders as he declared in his speech. On the other hand, the three parties have
requested him to call them within the set days before the day earlier proposed
for countrywide demonstrations, without which they will go to the streets. Even
if the president would meet them before the set date for start of demonstrations
and discuss other matters apart from listening to their demand, they would
stick to their vow of demonstration, they said. Opposition leaders want the president
to declare his intention not to sign the bill on the spot while meeting with
them, in which case they would stop the demonstration with immediate effect. They
similarly observed that the president noted in his speech that he was informed
of the development of the constitutional review process and the Bill, “and came
to learn that Zanzibar
was not adequately involved in the whole process.” The three parties have
unanimously agreed with the president in his directive that the discussion on Zanzibar participation
should be taken back to Parliament. In response to that point, the three
parties have asked the president to “take to task the responsible Ministers whom
they said have cheated the president over the matter.” Mnyika, the Chadema
party publicity and MP for Ubungo, named the three ministers as the Minister of
State in the President’s Office, Steven Wasira who is responsible for
coordination, as well as the Minister of State in Prime Minister’s office
responsible for Parliamentary Affairs William Lukuvi, along with minister for
Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Mathias Chikawe. Mnyika said the three
ministers earlier said that the representation of Zanzibar in the whole process was complete,
and that when the opposition party wanted to inquire from the State House by a
demonstration on the matter, they were refused permission on the matter. The Zanzibaris should be given the attention
they deserve, the MP said, underlining that it is from this point of view the president
should take to task his ministers for having relayed wrong information to him. The
third point the three parties noted is that in establishing the constituent assembly,
which they said it should be equal, as the participation of other civil society
groups was necessary in the whole process to balance the ideas likely to be
discussed. The issue of restructuring the constituent assembly did not however
come up in a sympathetic manner from the president in his remarks, as he
targeted opposition fears on his mandate to pick eligible aspirants for the 166
places provided for in the recently amended legislation. The president said
that the number of organizations and aspirants to those positions was massive
and there was no way they could select themselves, without executive mandate as
to who was eligible. He said that Chadema had suggested 40 students and 40
lecturers out of the 166 positions, which the president said was wholly
impracticable, thus emphasizing the necessity for the procedure given in the
amended law, of the various civic groups to issue lists of aspirants and the
president picks them, to stand. President Kikwete said that the method to be
used in that regard was to pick individuals who represent more than one
organization, as he did with selecting members of the Constitution Review
Commission. He reminded his audience
that similar fears had been expressed at that time concerning his having the
final say in the membership, but finally most civic groups were satisfied that
the selection of members of the commission was diligently done and a
professionally competent body, balanced in its representation of the various
civic groups in society was unveiled “It should be the case this time as well,”
the president insisted, declaring that the fear among opposition parties and
some civic groups on his role were largely without merit. He also castigated
demands for equal representation of Zanzibar
and the Mainland in the Constituent Assembly in like manner as in the
constitutional review commission, saying that the two bodies have different
roles and must have different compositions. The commission was meant to operate
on a principle of consensus, in that they should all agree about something
before it is incorporated in the draft constitution, and no voting was
intended, unlike the constituent assembly where the voting principle is part of
its decision making mechanism, he explained. There is however no question of
the Mainland swallowing Zanzibar because of their numbers, he said, pointing
out that amending or passing the constitution requires a two thirds majority of
each side, counted on its own, in which case the Mainland does not need to
reduce its representation to be equal to that of Zanzibar, the president underlined.
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