Two former African heads of state, Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan and Mozambique’s Armando Guebuza, will lead teams of international observers to monitor Tanzania’s general election on October 25.
The Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Hassan Yahya revealed this in Dar es Salaam during a joint press conference with the United Nations System Resident Coordinator, Alvaro Rodrigues, on the world body’s 70th anniversary week and the general election.
Ambassador Yahya, said Jonathan would lead the Commonwealth Team while Guebuza will lead the African Union (AU) one.
With just 16 days to the Tanzanian general election, Ambassador Yahya said different countries and international organisations had applied and granted permission to observe the elections.
They include the European Union (EU) and individual member states, including Finland and the United Kingdom; member states of the Great Lakes Region, the African Union (AU), Commonwealth and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
He said SADC, which usually sends two teams, would dispatch the first team much earlier to inspect and ensure that all preparations for the general election have been accordingly done.
“SADC usually has two teams; one comes to inspect all preparations for the general election while the second group will come as part of the observer mission. They will arrive this week,” he explained.
Yahya said the observers started arriving in the country this week and were received by officials from his ministry and linked to the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC).
On his part, Rodriguez called for peace and stability during the election period to enable the country continue with its development plans unabated.
“I call on all politicians and civil societies to promote messages of peace and stability for Tanzania to continue with its development plans unabated after the general election,” he said.
He recalled founding President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s statement that peace should come first for Tanzania to continue to develop.
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