CCM: Breaking the law?
THERE is growing consensus among top independent legal experts in the country that stalwarts of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) may have broken a number of laws of the land in their latest controversial attempt to exert strict control over parliamentary proceedings by reining in rebel legislators from within the party ranks.
Several legal analysts have told THISDAY in separate interviews that this weeks move by the partys national executive committee (NEC) to threaten CCM members of parliament with expulsion from the party, ostensibly for embarrassing the government over various allegations of grand corruption, was basically in violation of the national constitution.
How can CCM try to prevent its MPs from freely expressing their views in parliament? That is insane, University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) senior law lecturer Dr Sengondo Mvungi said.
According to Mvungi, a specialist on constitutional law, the attempts by CCM to put its parliamentary representatives on a tight leash also represents a breach of several standing legislations, including the Political Parties Act Number 5 of 1992.
�This law requires all registered political parties in Tanzania - CCM included - to be run on democratic principles. As such, what NEC is trying to do is in defiance of this law, asserted the former dean of the UDSM faculty of law.
He explained that universally-accepted principles of democracy require political parties to give freedom to all members, including MPs, to openly criticize government policies, decisions and even individual government leaders, without fear of restriction.
Mvungi strongly criticised CCM-NEC for threatening the Speaker of the National Assembly, Samwel Sitta, and other so-called rebel CCM lawmakers with expulsion from the party if they do not tow the party line.
He noted that Sitta appeared to have come under attack from forces of corruption within the ruling party primarily because of his tough stance against grand corruption.
This Speaker will never put up with scandals of the scale of Richmond, Kiwira and Meremeta...Thats why they want him removed from that post, said Mvungi, a presidential candidate on an opposition NCCR-Mageuzi ticket back in 2005.
In what can be construed as a rare move by an opposition leader, Mvungi went to the extent of saluting Sitta as the best Speaker of the National Assembly in Tanzanias entire history.
On his part, respected lawyer and former opposition MP Mabere Marando backed an opinion already expressed by another prominent local legal expert, Tundu Lissu, to the effect that CCM has also breached specific parliamentary legislation in moving to control future Bunge proceedings by gagging its own MPs.
It is a fact that in this instance, the ruling party has gone against the Parliamentary Immunities, Powers and Privileges Act of 1988 in particular,
� Marando said when contacted for comment.
He advised CCM lawmakers who have been vocal in opposing corruption and abuse of public office to resign from the ruling party, rather than accept such a prohibitive and condescending gag order.
Yet another prominent legal expert and university lecturer, Prof. Abdallah Saffari, also described the latest CCM-NEC ploy to control parliamentary proceedings as unconstitutional and a violation of parliamentary powers and privileges, designed to turn the Bunge into a mere committee of the ruling party.
If this thing is allowed, members of parliament will effectively lose their independence, Prof. Saffari noted.
The Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) issued a strongly-worded statement yesterday castigating both CCM-NEC and the ruling partys central committee for attempting such an
�unconstitutional
� step, and at the same time praising Speaker Sitta for
�his firm and independent leadership of parliament.
�
The LHRC also praises other MPs who have courageously spoken out against corruption, said the statement.
At the just-concluded CCM top level meetings in Dodoma, ruling party MPs were warned in no uncertain terms to lay off the burning subject of corruption allegations levelled against former president Benjamin Mkapa, as well as other pending grand graft scandals, or ultimately have their party membership annulled.
Meanwhile, CCMs propaganda specialist Richard Tambwe Hiza told a news conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday that Sitta was not targeted at the Dodoma meetings of the ruling party big guns.
SOURCE:
http://www.thisday.co.tz/News/6217.html