Two former African heads of state, Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan and
Mozambique’s Armando Guebuza, will lead teams of international
observers to monitor the general election in Tanzania on October 25.
The Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
International Cooperation, Ambassador Hassan Simba Yahya, said Mr
Jonathan will lead the Commonwealth Team while Mr Guebuza will lead
the African Union (AU) delegation.
Ambassador Yahya revealed this in Dar es Salaam during a joint press
conference with the United Nations System Resident Coordinator, Mr
Alvaro Rodrigues, to brief journalists on the world body’s 70th anniversary week and the country’s general election.
He said the Commonwealth is happy to see Jonathan lead the team because of his exemplary feat of handing over to opposition government.
The former Nigeria’s President will meet with President of the Country before the election as well as meet with other delegation heads.
He is expected to hold press conferences in Tanzania before and after elections.
As 16 days remain to the general election today, Ambassador Yahya said
different countries and international organisations had applied and
been granted permission to observe the elections.
They include the European Union (EU) and individual member states,
including Finland and the United Kingdom; member states of the Great
Lakes Region, the African Union (AU), Commonwealth and the Southern
African Development Community (SADC).
He said SADC, which usually sends two teams, will dispatch the first
team much earlier to inspect and ensure that all preparations for the
general election have been accordingly done.
“SADC usually has two teams; one comes to inspect all preparations for
the general election while the second group will come as part of the
observer mission. They will arrive this week,” he explained.
Ambassador Yahya said the observers started arriving in the country
this week and were received by officials from his ministry and linked
to the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and the Zanzibar Electoral
Commission (ZEC).
On his part, Mr Rodriguez called for peace and stability during the
election period to enable the country to continue with its development
plans unabated.
“I call on all politicians and civil societies to promote messages of
peace and stability for Tanzania to continue with its development
plans unabated after the general election,” he said.
He recalled founding President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s statement that peace should come first for Tanzania to continue to develop.
