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 In a move meant to ensure enhanced transparency in Tanzania’s national electoral process, presidential votes will from now on be announced as they are received from constituencies. National Electoral Commission director Rajabu Kiravu shed light on this historic departure from procedure in use for decades in remarks in Dar es Salaam yesterday. Addressing representatives of people with disabilities, he said the commission would make presidential votes public “soon after the results are submitted from constituencies rather than waiting for all votes to be collected from across the country as has been the practice until now”.
“My office is fully aware of the poor state of communication and other infrastructure in different parts of our country. We understand that this is a major challenge when it comes to distributing voting equipment and facilities for the General Election and furnishing the commission with the results,” noted the NEC director. “The announcing of election results as immediately after they are obtained from constituencies as humanly possible is sure to help make presidential candidates and the public disabuse themselves of their negative perception of the electoral commission and the voting process in general,” he added. He said the system would enable candidates to count votes from one constituency to the other and finally be in position to tell whether they were likely to win or lose. Kiravu also pointed out that the commission was exploring the possibility of supplying and equipping all polling stations with “special gadgets” to help people with disabilities take part in the electoral process with minimum inconvenience. “We are fully briefed about the wide array of challenges commonly facing people with disabilities, particularly on polling day. We are looking for exploring all manner of options to help even these people exercise their constitutional right to vote and be voted for to do so with minimum effort,” he elaborated. He added that the commission was also intent on putting up posters and billboards at polling stations “to further inform, educate and sensitise the electorate and other members of the public on the monumental importance and relevance of the electoral process”. “We are also planning to deploy ultra-modern technology to facilitate communication between us and voters. Known as Voters Interaction System, it has the capacity to identify the voters and show the exact station where each ought to go on polling day,” said the NEC director. He cited statistics showing that General Election in October this year will attract between 20 and 21 million voters, “which logically means we shall have more polling stations than we had the last time – in 2005”. He said there were 47,000 polling stations during the 2005 General Election, a figure he saw shooting up to 55,000 this year. Oskar Lehner, United Nations Development Programme’s election support project manager, meanwhile said people with disabilities constitute 8.2 per cent of Tanzania’s population – which comes to some 3 million people. He explained that people in that particular segment had as much right to vote and be voted for as all other eligible wananchi, “which is partly why UNDP is out to make sure that those people get that access in the General Election”. SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN My Take: The plan to announce presidential results from constituences has come a timely moment. For sometimes we have asked for this system to be adopted and I'm glad that NEC has finally done so. However, we have to understand that this sytem works better during elections that are not that tight and there is no cliffhanger. At an election that is emotionally charged and with a close race to finish this sytem might cause more problem than it'll try to solve especially if the incumbent was to be seen as losing. So, I hope the sytem will be put in place that no matter what NEC should be free from political pressure like that which happened in Kenya some few years ago.
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