A day after leaders of the Coalition of Defenders of
People's Constitution popularly known in Kiswahili acronym ‘Ukawa’ announced
their deliberate boycott from participating in the coming referendum polls
slated end of April this year, political analysts have declared their interest for
being null and void. Speaking at different time, analysts have noted that, such
a deliberate boycott is not a direct solution to stop the constitution making
process at this stage, but rather it paves the way for the written proposed
draft to kick off with a landslide victory of ‘YES’ vote. A senior Lecturer of a Political
Science at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) Dr. Benson Bana said in a
telephone interview last week in Dar es Salaam that, a series of boycotts which
have been shown by the opposition group has never been successful in whatever
they oppose. Instead according to Dr. Bana the habit has been tarnishing the good
image of the opposition camp which it thinks the adopted style of boycotting
matters is the only solution to end every query of a subject matter put forward
for discussion in parliament. According to him, he says that, the Ukawa group
could also campaign against the proposed
draft countrywide by inciting voters not to vote for the draft to uphold
the majority support of the ‘NO’ votes. “Walking out of the race is not a
solution, let the Ukawa group establish the idea and join the fight in a move
to protest instead of pulling out of a race as this would automatically pave a
landslide victory to their opponent the ruling party”, he said. However, he
further noted that, their move is not a correct strategy that for himself as a
political analyst is a source of political chaos that causes misunderstandings
among the people in any country in the world.
He is of the view of the fact
that, the political propaganda being spread in the country about the
constitution making process is not for the parties, but the issue entirely
concerns stakeholders who are citizens of the country and is not for the
interests of political parties. In view of this however he said that it could
be a shame if only three parties out of registered 22 have joined hands and
because of their representation in national parliament should not be a reason
for them to riot against. On his part, a Professor of law Chris Peter of the
School of law at University of Dar es Salaam said that, the boycott of the
Ukawa leaders and their members would cause a direct impact which is likely to
give a landslide victory to their opponents in constitution making process. Despite
there are various challenges associated with the voter registration processes,
the professor has seen the need for the people to be given the proposed draft
to discuss and go through. Apart from that, he also said that, education about
the new constitutional draft should be issued to the people so as to make them
aware of the high legal document in the country how it looks like and other
things, he said. Prof. Chris queried why the armed force has been commissioned
to take part for security reasons during voting for the referendum is going on.
He said this would mount tension and fear among voters. However, he suggests
that, people are enough to supervise for themselves and arrange matters for
themselves as what will be voted for is their document and that the involvement
of the military forces was not legal. Otherwise, he said that in case of
irregularities should the two warring parties reach a consensus. The Party
Publicity Secretary of the ruling party CCM Nape Mnauye showed reluctance when
contacted for comments about Ukawa’s boycott for the referendum polls in a
telephone interview. “I cannot talk of anything about Ukawa’s decision because
I am in Zanzibar and moreover I am not aware of what is going on”, he said and declined
to add anything more and instead he cut down the communication link.
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