Newly elected lawmakers take oath in parliament

by KATARE MBASHIRU & SYLIVESTER DOMASA

TWO newly elected Members of Parliament (MPs) were yesterday sworn-in by the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Tulia Ackson, as absenteeism by MPs rocked the House.

Probably because of the just ended Easter celebrations, but what remains on record is that the majority of MPs, especially from the opposition camp went missing in the debating chamber. The two MPs who were sworn-in were elected in the by-elections that were conducted earlier this year.
They are Maulid Mtulia of Kinondoni Constituency and his Siha constituency counterpart, Dr Godwin Mollel - both on CCM ticket. In the same vein, the House re-elected its three chairpersons whose tenure had ended in the 10th parliamentary ses-sion.
They will help the Speaker of the National Assembly and his deputy in an event they are absent for other official duties or any other reason. The three chairpersons who were voted by all MPs are, Mr Mussa Azan Zungu, Andrew Chenge and Najma Murtaza Giga, all of them on CCM ticket.
The MPs who were sworn-in yesterday got a landslide victory after a titanic bruising battle between them and their closest challengers from the main opposition party, Chadema. The two defected from the opposition last year to join the ruling party.
Dr Mollel, the former Siha MP on Chadema ticket joined the ruling party on December 14, 2017 - while Mr Mtulia who was also the MP for Kinondoni on Civic United Front (CUF) ticket defected from the party for CCM on December 2, last year. Both candidates retained the seats they won through the opposition CUF and Chadema in the 2015 General Election.
Mr Mtulia was declared winner of the Kinondoni byelection by returning officer Aron Kagurumujuli, after garnering 30,241 votes. His closest challenger on CHADEMA ticket , Mr Salum Mwalimu, polled only 12,353 of the total valid votes counted, thereby coming second to Mr Mtulia. Available statistics show that the number of people who voted for Mr Mtulia this time around was only a half of those who voted for him in the 2015 General Election.
According to Mr Kagurumujuli, Kinondoni constituency is home to some 264,055 registered voters. In the October 2015 elections, a total of 70,337 people voted for Mr Mtulia, against the 65,964 who voted for Iddi Azan, who was seeking to retain the seat through CCM.
In the Siha parliamentary constituency by-election, Dr Mollel was declared the winner after scooping a total of 29,911 of the valid votes cast against his closest rival, Mr Elvis Mosi (Chadema), who garnered only 5,905 votes.
Dr Mollel promised to serve all Siha residents regardless of their political or religious affiliation. In that regard, he called upon Siha residents to put aside their political and other differences and work together