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Thursday, April 30, 2015

Registrar cautions political parties over fuelling violence


THE Registrar of Political Parties, Justice Francis Mutungi, stresses a point during the opening of a two-day forum on strengthening multi-party democracy in the country which has been hosted by his office and supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Dar es Salaam. Left is UNDP Country Director, Mr Phillipe Poinsot. (Photo by Mohamed Mambo)
AS the country inches towards general election, Registrar of Political Parties, Francis Mutungi has urged all political parties to ensure that they refrain from enunciating confrontational remarks that will plunge the nation into violence.

Speaking at a Stakeholders Consultation on Multi-party Democracy organised jointly by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Office of Political Parties Registrar, in Dar es Salaam, Mr Mutungi said that the country’s fate remains in the hands of politicians.
“Elections are periodic. We have since independence cherishing peace and harmony; make sure we remain one and united,” he remarked.
The meeting also aimed at creating common understanding and promotes cross-sector collaboration for delivering peaceful election in 2015 and lay a foundation for more constructive, inclusive and involved political engagement in future.
He advised politicians to have in mind that political parties come and go but Tanzania will remain forever. “All political parties dream of ensuring that we have a wellbuilt country, with this goal, peace is the key ingredient that will give us all what we dream for,” he stressed.
Mr Mutungi noted that there should be well-established mechanism for peaceful dialogue and dispute resolution process within all political parties.
The Chairperson of the Political Parties’ Council, Mr Peter Mziray, echoed Mutungi’s appeal, stressing that parties have major role to play in protecting the country’s peace and harmony.
“These political parties must ensure that they are not the source of violence,” he said, adding that Tanzania will still remain exemplary only if politicians continue preaching peace, unity and love.
He vowed that under his capacity as the Chairman of the Council, he will work closely with the registrar’s office to ensure that the country remains united.
UNDP Country Director, Mr Philipe Poinsot said that given competitive nature, elections can trigger conflict even if such conflict may not be related to the electoral process itself.
“Similarly, we are aware that Tanzania, apart from Zanzibar in the past election before 2010 has had a long history of peaceful elections.
This notwithstanding, we believe it is important that we as UNDP help put in place and sustain through the coming election and beyond,” he noted.
He added that UNDP had laid number of initiatives that could help build dialogues and thus prevent conflicts related to the 2015 general election.
He expounded further that for a combination of reasons, with some variation from place to place; most observers agree that political tensions are higher than usual in Tanzania, this year. “Political parties have key role in managing and reducing those tensions.
In fact, no one else has a more important role,” he said, stressing that multiparty dialogues were essential for this. He explained that multiparty dialogues will help to build trust, reduce tension, identify problems and issues common attention such as controlling youth vanguards and help solve problems that threaten peace and elections.
Political analyst and senior lecture at the University of Dar es Salaam, Dr Benson Bana underscored the need for embracing tolerance as one of the ways to address intra-party conflicts.
He noted that conflicts within political parties were fueling up, a thing which he described as “unhealthy for multiparty democracy.”
Dr Bana also advised coalition of opposition parties known by its Kiswahili acronym as UKAWA to think of forming one strong political party if it really needed to take control of the government.
“That could be the best approach, but under the current system where there are a number of parties within a coalition, it is hard to defeat the ruling party - CCM,” he noted.

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