Dar es Salaam: Lema reinstatement challenged

By Rosina John, The Citizen Correspondent.

Three members of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) have filed an application in the Court of Appeal seeking revision of its judgment which reinstated Mr Godbless Lema as the MP for Arusha Urban.

The CCM members, Mr Musa Hamis Mkanga, Ms Agness Gidion Mollel and Ms Happy Emannuel Kivuyo filed the application on Tuesday. They gave several grounds to fault the judgment given by judges Nathalia Kimaro, Bernard Luanda and Salum Massati, on December 21, last year.

In their decision, the judges quashed the ruling by High Court Judge Gabriel Rwakibarila, who nullified Lema’s 2010 victory on the basis that in campaign rallies held between August 20 and October 2010, the MP used abusive language against his opponent, Ms Batilda Burian, contrary to electoral laws and regulations.

The appeal judges held, among others, that the three applicants (CCM members) had no locus standi to petition the High Court to challenge the election results on grounds that during campaigns ahead of the parliamentary election, the winner used abusive language.

But in their application, the trio wants the decision be revised. They alleged that the finding by the judges on locus standi was in conflict with another decision given by the same court, particularly on how the English Common Law and National Election Act could be applied in election cases.

The applicants further stated that the court erred when it held that there was no evidence on record to indicate that they were registered voters and it wrongly decided that the right of voters to challenge an election result was limited only to the violation of his or her right to vote.

In the appeal, Mr Lema had challenged the decision given by the High Court on April 5, last year, declaring his election in the 2010 General Election null and void. Lema had polled 56,561 votes, while Dr Burian finished a distant second with 37,460 votes.

Dr Burian, a former cabinet minister, is now Tanzania’s High Commissioner to Kenya. Lema’s victory was nullified after the court was satisfied that the then Chadema candidate uttered defamatory remarks and abusive language against his CCM rival.

But later, Chadema appealed against the ruling, claiming it was a “travesty of justice,” citing that the alleged defamatory and abusive language said to have been used by him against the CCM candidate in the preceding campaigns had not been proven.

The opposition party claimed that such claims were not substantiated because the victim, Dr Burian, who contested with Lema, did not appear before the court to corroborate them.

Source: The Citizen (14/02/2013): http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/news/51-other-news/28828-lema-reinstatement-challenged