Return of Lissu fuels Chadema’s demand for new constitution

Dar es Salaam. The vice chairperson of Chadema, Mr Tundu Lissu, returned home yesterday, igniting the opposition party’s fight for a new constitution, which they claim will solve all of the country’s problems.

Mr Lissu, who survived an assassination attempt in Dodoma on September 7, 2017 during the reign of former President John Magufuli, said during a public rally at Buliaga grounds in Temeke District in Dar es Salaam that Tanzania needs a nationwide movement to demand a new constitution that includes an independent electoral commission.

Mr Lissu, who went into exile after surviving an assassination attempt in 2017, returned in 2020 when he was chosen as the opposition party’s presidential candidate.

With political rallies prohibited by the late Magufuli regime in 2016, Mr Lissu found himself in an awkward position and opted to depart the country for Belgium shortly after the elections.

Thus, yesterday’s rally was the first for him to take part in since 2020.

It came after President Samia Suluhu Hassan rescinded the restriction as part of her 4Rs plan of Reconciliation, Resilience, Reforms, and Rebuilding the Nation.

Mr Lissu stated during his first public rally following his return from Belgium yesterday that Tanzania will have valid elections only if the existing electoral body does not exist and that because the constitution establishes the said commission, the law should come first.

“This movement isn’t a new thing. In fact, it started 32 years ago during the Nyalali Commission. We highly need it before the coming elections. We need one that trims the president’s powers so that he or she is not the only one who decides our fate,” he said.

He rallied Tanzanians, irrespective of their political ideology, to come together and stand firm in demand for the anticipated ‘Katiba’.

“This movement will be carried throughout the country during the party’s organised rallies as the main agenda. We want Tanzanians to see the need for it,” Mr Lissu asserted.

He stated that when the constitution is amended, the nation’s problems, such as taxes, levies, and other fees, will be addressed.

“The current constitution indicates that the national assembly will not discuss anything related to finance if the president has not agreed on the matter and that the topic can only be brought to Parliament by the minister responsible,” he said.

That is why, he claims, founding President Julius Nyerere told the BBC in 1977 and 1978 that the present constitution can easily induce the reigning president to become a dictator.

“The President is everything in Tanzania. In actuality, he is the one who employs and fires...,” he said.

Mr Lisu said the current Katiba was rooted from the colonial past, therefore the need for one that would deal with modern concerns.For his part, the party’s national chairman, Mr Freeman Mbowe, said Dar es Salaam, being the country’s largest city and one that is home to people from various regions of the country, must also be the epicenter of the change movement.

“In Kenya, Zambia, and Malawi, changes started in Nairobi, Lusaka, and Lilongwe, respectively. We are not going to relax. We will start a countrywide movement….,” he said.

He said the constitutional change that the party needs will ensure that all political leaders are elected by the people.

“We want to register 1,000 people in each political administrative street or village and therefore obtain approximately 500,000 people in support of the movement. No force will be against them,” he stated, explaining how the concept of ‘people’s power’ works.

The Chadema secretary general, Mr John Mnyika, said: “For the first time since the general election, the top leadership is present at a rally, and with the spirit which people have shown, then Chadema will assume the responsibility of the country’s leadership.”

He urged the government to give its position on the current high prices of food and other commodities. On the other hand, Mr Mnyika asked his national chairman to take advantage of the current dialogue with the government and the ruling party to demand the formation of a truth and reconciliation commission in order to bring the nation together.