Dar es Salaam: Lema`s appeal hearing starts

BY WARYOBA YANKAMI

A panel of three Appeal Court judges Salum Massati, Nathalia Kimaro and Bernad Luanda started hearing the appeal filed by the former Arusha-Urban MP, Godbless Lema, whose 2010 election victory was nullified by the Arusha High Court.

The appellant’s advocate, Tundu Lissu submitted 18 grounds for appeal in which he claimed that the Judge who nullified Lema’s election victory ignored the common law.

Lissu also alleged a conflict of interest in the ruling because according to him, people who filed the case against Lema were voters who had been disqualified in accordance with the Election Act section 111 (1) which required all disgruntled voters to submit their complaints before the court if they had reason to believe that their right to vote had been violated or that their votes hadn’t for any reason been counted. The advocate also highlighted that, the case was not filed by the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) candidate Dr Batilda Burian, the former minister in the Vice President’s Office, but rather by voters who had no authority to do so.

According to Lema’s advocate, the Electoral code of conduct does not include the nullification of the MP’s victory but only allows fines and subsequent appeals to the Ethics Committees. If the plaintiff was not satisfied with the election results he or she could then file the case in court directly and not via voters.

The appellant told the court that there was no material evidence brought before the High Court, not even the alleged video and audio CDs that the plaintiff had supposedly spoken of.

The Government Attorney, Timon Vitalis, conceded that the National Electoral Commission (NEC) did make a mistake in amending the Electoral code without apparently, consulting Parliament because in the view of the appellant’s lawyer, before the amendment, the code made no mention of any clause that nullifies the position of any politician who violated it.

In an attempt to clarify his claim, Vitalis, further maintained that, the laws that nullify a politician’s position are found in the Election Act and not in the Election code of conduct that was used by the High Court judge in Arusha.

Advocate Alute Mughwai for the petitioner made clear that, the grounds for nullification were based on discrimination against the CCM candidate during the political campaigns.

Lema appealed against the judgment issued by the high court Arusha Zone on April 5 of this year under Chief Judge Gabriel Rwakibarila of the High Court in Sumbawanga zone.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN (05/12/2012): http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=48682