‘NEC needs permanent workers’

LYDIA SHEKIGHENDA in Dodoma

LAST year’s general election evaluation report released here yesterday has recommended for restructuring of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), to enable it to have permanent employees at council level.

NEC Chairman (retired) Judge, Damian Lubuva, said that the reforms will improve the performance of the Commission because it will have permanent staff instead of depending on council directors.

He was speaking during the handing over of a document titled “The Post- Election Evaluation Report on the 2015 Presidential, Parliamentary and Councillors Election” to a Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Parliament, Labour Employment, Youth and Disabled), Ms Jenister Mhagama. Justice Lubuva said that the government should review the National Elections Act and the Local Authorities (Elections) Act so as to harmonise the contradicting provisions.

“The restructuring of the commission will improve its performance and work more independently without depending on council directors,” he said. Justice Lubuva further explained that the commission decided to conduct the 2015 post-election evaluation to get a feedback from the stakeholders.

“This is the first evaluation since the establishment of the Commission in 1993…it is a pre-requisite in the completion of the election cycle,” Justice Lubuva said.

He said that among the challenges highlighted in the report included voters who were outside the area in which they were registered and were unable to vote or misplacement of voters due to demarcation of administrative boundaries after the completion of updating voters permanent register.

Minister Mhagama commended NEC for holding a peaceful and successful election despite being the most competitive in the history of the country. She said, according to section 15(5) of the National Elections Act, the commission is required to update the voters’ register twice between consecutive general elections, but the process was not conducted due to a number of reasons.

Minister Mhagama mentioned limited budget as among the factors for failure to update the voters’ register, noting that the government will continue to address the challenges to improve the commission’s performance.

NEC Director of Elections, Mr Ramadhani Kailima said that the evaluation completes the election cycle and marks the beginning of the next election preparations. He said the evaluation is aimed at determining awareness of the election officials on the commission’s organisation structure and whether it is suitable in the conduct of elections.

According to Mr Kailima, the results revealed that out of 1,029 election officials who were interviewed, 929 officials equivalent to 90.3 per cent were aware of the Commission’s organisation structure, while 100 officials equivalent to 9.7 per cent were not.

He added that with regard to the sustainability of the organisation structure on conducting elections, out of 929 election officials who were interviewed, 818 equivalent to 88 per cent said it is suitable for conducting elections.

“The remaining 111 officials equivalent to 12 per cent were of the view that the commission’s organisation structure is not suitable for conducting elections,” Mr Kailima said