Tanzania’s electoral body extends voters registration for Dar es Salaam

Dar es Salaam. The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has said on Thursday, February 20, 2020 that it has extended the voter registration exercise for Dar es Salaam Region for three more days until February 23.

The decision comes against the background of the national electoral body’s meeting that took place on February 19, 2020 where an assessment of the exercise in Tanzania’s commercial capital was made and decided upon that it be extended.

Now, people residing in Dar es Salaam will have tomorrow until Sunday, February 23, 2020, to update their information in the national voters’ register so that they can participate in the coming General Election later this year.

Dr Wilson Charles Mahera, NEC’s Director of Elections, told reporters during a press briefing here that the decision to extend the exercise was taken to enable more people to exercise their democratic rights as for the past two days many people had been flocking voter registration centres.

“While the exercise was slow-moving when it started, with few people showing up for the registration, things have changed in the past two to three days as more and more people were showing up at the centres and we are afraid that if not extended, the exercise will leave a lot more people unregistered,” said Dr Mahera.

According to Dr Mahera, this, however, does not mean that when the exercise ends on February 23, people from the region will not have another opportunity to update their information in the national voters’ register.

Dr Mahera said that this was just for the first round of the exercise and that the second round will be announced later by the electoral body in due time.