Party faults PM office over poll

Alliance for Democratic Change (ADC) chairman Said Miraj displays the party candidates’ election oath forms for the contested local government chairmanship posts during a press conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday. The ADC chief claimed his party clinched several posts. PHOTO|VENANCE NESTORY 

By Henry Mwangonde, The Citizen Correspondent

In Summary

• ADC chairman says the party demands an apology from the PM’s office because the latter lied to the public that it failed to win any seat while the fact is it won various streets
• Mr Miraji says the party has been embarrassed and belittled by the mistake done by PM’s office

Dar es Salaam. The Alliance for Democratic Change (ADC) has threatened to take the Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda to court over irregularities and claims that the party failed to win any seat in the just-concluded local government elections.

According to ADC chairman Saidi Miraj, they demand an apology from the Prime Minister’s office because it lied to the public that his party failed to win any seat while the fact is they won in various streets.

According to Mr Miraj, the party has been embarrassed and belittled by the mistake made by the office of the PM when announcing the results. He said many ADC members have been disappointed, a situation which he claimed was very dangerous for the development of democracy in the country.

Mr Miraj was speaking to reporters yesterday.

“We have been embarrassed as well as disappointed by the mistake made when announcing the results because some of our party’s flagbearers actually won,” said Mr Miraj.

He urged the PM’s office to apologise and re-announce the results indicating where ADC candidates won. However, Mr Miraj did not go into details on where ADC candidates won in the local government polls.

When contacted, the director of local government elections at the office of the PM, Mr Khalist Luanda, told The Citizen  that he was surprised by the ADC statement because the results which were announced were not final.

“I am wondering why they have decided to make such a statement because when I announced the results I was clear that they weren’t final…results from 600 villages were yet to be received by my office by that time,” said Mr Luanda.

He added that up to the moment his office is still compiling results. He assured all political parties that they would be given official results after completion of the exercise.