- Written by CHRISTOPHER MAJALIWA
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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