SADC observers arrive in Tanzania

Some 50 parliamentarians from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries are to arrive in Tanzania on Sunday to observe the forthcoming general elections in this country.

These SADC legislators, who are scheduled to remain until November 4, will be observing polling stations in 15 of Tanzania's 26 regions in both the mainland and the Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar.

They will observe the organization and conduct of the October 30 polls, the third multi-party general elections in this country. They will also witness the announcement of the election results.

The SADC parliamentarians will be led by South Africa's Fatima Hajaig, according to a statement issued by the SADC Secretariat based in Windhoek of Namibia.

The SADC observation team is consisted of lawmakers from Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe as well as Tanzania.

This is the second time for SADC parliamentarians to observe the Tanzanian general elections. They did so back in 2000.

Kasuka Mutukwa, secretary general of the SADC Parliamentary Forum election observation mission, said that the SADC observers would focus on the Tanzanian constitutional and legal framework within which the elections are conducted and the historical, socioeconomic and political environment within which the elections are taking place.

"At the end of counting of ballots, the SADC teams will reconvene in Dar es Salaam to issue an Interim Statement on the conduct of the electoral process. The statement will also make a determination as to whether or not the process was free, fair, credible and legitimate," said the statement.

Since its formation in 1999, the SADC Parliamentary Forum has observed general elections in Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

A nine-observer team from the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa and a 10-member Commonwealth Observer Group are scheduled to arrive in Tanzania on Monday.

Source: Xinhua