Tanzanians to wait until mid-August to know presidential candidate from opposition coalition

Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe (right) confers with Secretary-General Willibrod Slaa in Dar es Salaam yesterday during the party’s central committee meeting.  PHOTO | VENANCE NESTORY 

By Athuman Mtulya,The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

• Since Chadema, CUF, NCCR-Mageuzi and NLD joined forces last year and announced that they will support one contender in all electoral posts including presidential candidate, the questions that has been constantly thrown to the coalition is when and who will be nominated to run for the big office under the Ukawa banner.

Dar es Salaam. Tanzanians will have to wait for another three months to get to know the Presidential contender of the coalition of four opposition parties, Ukawa, in the October General Election.

Since Chadema, CUF, NCCR-Mageuzi and NLD joined forces last year and announced that they will support one contender in all electoral posts including presidential candidate, the questions that has been constantly thrown to the coalition is when and who will be nominated to run for the big office under the Ukawa banner.

According to their agreement, all parties forming Ukawa will select its presidential candidate and the summit of the four parties will select one candidate out them in August.

Yesterday, Chadema’s Central Committee (CC) issued a three months’ timetable of its primary elections, which indicates that on presidential position forms will be out from July 20, and an aspirant will be named on August 4.

So far, none of the Ukawa members have announced their presidential nominee, and with Chadema’s timetable on place, the coalition will get its presidential candidate just few days before campaign kicks off in mid-August.

Chadema’s Secretary General Wilibrod Slaa said although there has been a lot of questions and speculations on Ukawa’s presidential candidature, there are agreements which need to be observed.

“We can’t operate on speculations; there are four parties with their full machineries here. All parties have to nominate their candidates though their channels and at the end we will seat as a coalition and negotiate on one candidate and that is how it is going to happen,” he said.

Briefing journalists on the resolutions of the CC, the party’s national chairman, Mr Freeman Mbowe, said apart from the primaries, the CC discussed prospects of the General Election and the ongoing registration of voters through biometric voter registration (BVR) technology.

He said the CC reiterated Ukawa’s position that there were worried about the elections being postponed and wants the government and National Electoral Commission (NEC) to came out with genuine commitment on the issue.