Lowassa’s wife turns down MP seat offer

Dar es Salaam. The wife of former Chadema presidential candidate in the just concluded General Election, Ms Regina Lowassa, declined an offer by the party’s Central Committee to be nominated as special seats Member of Parliament.

Ms Regina’s decision came to light as the National Electoral Commission (NEC) announced the allocation of special seats to three political parties which have met legal requirements.

According to Mr Abubakary Liongo, a spokesperson for Mr Edward Lowassa, Ms Regina described Chadema’s offer as an honour, but declined to accept it.

Mr Liongo said, Ms Regina reiterated she would continue serving the people, especially women, even if she has turned down an offer to become an MP.

“I thank my party’s CC for giving me this great honour, but I can’t accept it. I believe it will be better for me to continue with my struggles to liberate the people, especially women, while outside the Parliament,” read part of the statement sent to the media by Mr Liongo.

Announcing allocation of special seats, NEC chairman Judge Damian Lubuva said only three political parties qualified after meeting legal requirements.

According to Mr Lubuva only CCM, Chadema and CUF met the requirements for allocation of the special seats.

Mr Lubuva said, the law, among, other things, directs NEC to allocate special seats to political parties which garnered at least 5 per cent of all parliamentary votes.

According to Mr Lubuva, due to the decision made by the government, the number of special seats MPs were increased to 40 per cent of elected MPs. Judge Lubuva said as a result of the increase in the number of constituencies currently the number of special seats MPs stands at 113.

However, Judge Lubuva said, NEC allocated 110 special seats because the parliamentary election hadn’t been held in eight constituencies due to various factors.

According to him, the allocation of the remaining three seats will be determined by the outcome of the election in those constituencies.

According to Judge Lubuva, NEC allocated 64 special seats to CCM, 36 to Chadema and 10 to CUF. However, the NEC chairman didn’t disclose the names of special seats MPs. Judge Lubuva said, the names would be released by the respective parties.

“We will forward the names to the political parties and they are the ones who will announce them,” said Judge Lubuva.

Chadema and CUF have benefited because they have managed to increase the number of special seats MPs compared to the previous election.

The number of special seats allocated to Chadema has increased from 23 in 2010 to 36, while those allocated to CUF has increased from 8 in 2010 to 10. However, seats allocated to CCM has decreased to 64 from 65 in 2010.