| Opposition to election date still mounts | Send to a friend |
| Monday, 21 June 2010 15:00 |
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Objections by the church for declaring Sunday October 31, the polling day for this year’s General Election, appear to be gaining a lot of support from members of other religious groups, suggesting that the polls should not be held on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Speaking to The Citizen this week, many people suggested that voting be done on a working day between Monday to Thursday. Ms Zainabu Maulid, a Muslim said since the Tanzania government respects the freedom of worship, it has to respect the will of people. “It will be bad if the elections are held on worship days,” said she. She added that the government should declare a working day a public holiday to allow more people participate in the voting exercise. Another Muslim who introduced himself as Mr Mrisho Seif, agreed with Zainabu’s views, saying the government should declare a working day a public holiday off to allow a fully day for people to exercise their democratic right. “Voting involves both the voters and polling officials who cannot leave their assigned polling stations to go for prayers. But a public holiday would be convenient to both the voters and officials,” said Mr Seif. Ms Shani Lucas insisted that days of worship should be respected and be left exclusively for prayers and not otherwise. She is a Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) and urged the government to listen to the people’s will. “As citizens Tanzanians have the right to be heard by the government,” she said. Mr Better Nicas who prays at the Tanzania Assemblies of God (TAG), asked the government carefully consider suggestion advanced by the people and change the polling day as prayers day would divide nation. For instance by declaring Sunday a voting day, would make Christians feel segregated and abandoned, she noted. “It is bad when it reaches a point where some faith-based groups feel weak, abandoned and segregated by the government,” he said, adding that this should not be allowed to happen. Mr Godfrey Mwanilwa said he agrees with the Tanga denominational coalition which last week suggested to the government to shift the polling exercise to a working day. “Declaring one day as a public holiday is not a bad idea as long as you give the people chance to exercise their democratic rights to elect leaders they want. Speaking on the issue, the secretary general of the National Convention for Construction and Reform-Mageuzi, (NCCR-Mageuzi), Mr Samwel Ruhuza, said his party had been asking the government since 2002 to avoid picking prayer days for polling forcing Christians to choose between taking part in elections and or go for prayers. “For example some denominations starts mass at 8:00am and end up at 4:00pm, it is important therefore to declare a public holiday instead of forcing people choose between going out vote or go to church,” said Mr Ruhuza. Last week a Tanga-based coalition that brought together church leaders from various Christian denominations, protested against NEC’s decision and appealed to the election body to change the polling date of October 31, which falls on Sunday. The chairman of the coalition, Bishop Jotham Mwakimage, told a news conference that NEC should choose a day that does not infringe people’s constitutional rights to worship, but NEC insisted that polls will be held on October 31 as planned. “We should emulate other nations which have seen this anomaly and holding elections on worship days,” Bishop Mwakimage said, suggesting that the polling day be changed to between Monday and Thursday. Bishop Mwakimage said the coalition supported church leaders in Dar es Salaam who recently appealed to the government to change the election day. “We totally support church leaders in Dar es Salaam,” said the cleric, adding that although they respected President Jakaya Kikwete, they felt that they had the right to advise the government on issues that they thought could improve the electoral process and safeguard constitutional rights of the people. The cleric said the Tanzania Constitution provides for freedom for freedom of worship. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
