Slaa: Why we gave swearing-in ceremony wide berth
Monday, 08 November 2010
By The Citizen Reporter
Monday, 08 November 2010
By The Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. The Chama cha Demokrasia na Mendeleo (Chadema) presidential candidate in the just-concluded elections, Dr Willibrod Slaa, has stated reasons why the party decided to stay away from the naming of 2010 General Election winner and swearing in ceremonies late last week.
Chadema did not attend the ceremony to declare the next President organised by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) last Friday. Its leaders also skipped the swearing-in ceremony of President Jakaya Kikwete at the Uhuru Stadium on Saturday.
Writing on his Facebook page yesterday, Dr Slaa said the party stayed away from the two important functions because it did not want to be seen supporting what he termed as a flawed electoral process.
People have been asking why we have not attended the announcement of the presidential race winner, or the swearing-in ceremony. How can we attend the naming or swearing-in of a new President who has been declared winner under dubious circumstances? asked Dr Slaa on his web page.
Dr Slaa said the electoral process, especially in the tallying and announcement of winner of the presidential post, was wanting.
We have no personal problem with Mr Kikwete as our president; our basic problem is the process and the manner in which the winner was arrived at. The process was flawed to the extent that it is irrational to accept the outcome, he said adding:
Even if Kikwete had won by 99 per cent or 50.1 per cent, we would have accepted the results happily if the process was fair and clean.
He said if they had attended the functions, it would have invalidated their earlier message to NEC that the process was flawed.
Source: Citizen Daily
