Members of the political parties that form the
Coalition of the Defenders of People’s Constitution (UKAWA) have raised their
grave concern over what they described as incitement being propagated by the
ruling party with the aim of destroying their campaigns. Speaking to
journalists last week in Dar es Salaam, Ukawa’s interim Chairman James Mbatia has
accused the ruling party for misusing the national television station and
another electronic media such as the Star TV station for propagation to suppress
the movements of Ukawa in their campaigns. He gave an example of the Star TV
which airs the former video clips depicting the former Prime Minister Fredrick
Sumaye who recently announced his quest to help the Ukawa group in their campaigns,
saying that is one way to publicly ridiculing him. He noted that, the video
clips are shown during the time the former Premier was a CCM cadre and compare
with the current videos when he is no longer a member of the ruling party and
noted that is not fair and insisted that, defecting from a party is something
normal for a politician life. In view of this, however, he has blasted the
government through the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) for failure
to take action an entity tasked to ensure the recently endorse cyber laws are
taking effects against the offenders. Mbatia has also accused the Dar es Salaam
city Mayor Dr. Didas Masaburi for what he described as an act of incitement
when he (Masaburi) collected some few youths at Kinondoni district purporting
to be followers of the former Chadema Secretary General Dr. Wibroad Slaa and
commanded them tom riot. He said this is total incitement and warned the
security forces and intelligence security to be aware of this that, a nation is
now going astray as it would come to an extreme when the oppressed will riot in
the same way as what had happened in Kenya after post election of 2007.
He said
the two incidents together with others have really tarnished the good name of
the Ukawa group which seems to have become a great threat to the ruling party
especially at this time when campaigns have come to a high pick point
countrywide. He has however warned the ruling party to desist from doing any movements
as these are likely to cause mass clandestine in future as such incitements
would not be tolerated by people the majority of whom wants political changes
to occur in the country. He gave an example of the past such like incidents of
the related incitements which occurred way back in 2000 during the second
multipartism general election when the ruling parties beard false evidences
against the Civic United Front (CUF) when it had accused the party to have
supplied a container full of machetes and sharpened weapons. Other incitements
he has mentioned is where unfairness has began to be seen in campaigns whereby
he blasted the government for having taken to task Godless Lema for
interrogation where they claimed to have exceeded six minutes on a podium while
addressing a rally, and questioned the rationale of the ruling party which
exceeded half an hour during the inauguration of their campaigns at Jangwani
grounds. Another incitement he noted is when the billboard carrying a portrait
of the presidential flag bearer for Ukawa Edward Lowassa was pulled down at
Kariakoo area and when the group members enquired for reasons were notified
that it was ordered from the top government officials. In Iringa he said that,
Ukawa’s supporters had been arrested by the police on claims that had in
possession of the placards bearing the portrait of their presidential contender
and are under the police interrogation, an aspect that shows incitements. He
noted that, they have reported the matter to the National Electoral Commission
(NEC) who has advised them to file claims.
No comments:
Post a Comment