Constitution review key measure in growing democracy, says TCD

The ongoing constitutional reform process has been described as one of the indicators of growing democracy in Tanzania since the adoption of a multiparty system in 1992.

This was said yesterday in Dar es Salaam by Chairman of Tanzania Centre for Democracy (TCD) James Mbatia, in the news conference where he announced the convening of a two-day political parties meeting scheduled to begin today.

Titled Legal Framework Governing Political Parties: The Case of Party Financing, it will be held in Dar es Salaam.

At the beginning, he said, talking about multiparty was taken as treason and hostility, but nowadays things have changed.

Despite the prevalence of negative and positive challenges, people now have freedom to demand their rights even giving views on the constitutional review.

“We have observed that democracy has been growing as President Jakaya Kikwete has formed the Constitutional Review Commission which will involve all Tanzanians from different sectors and parties to do its work,” he noted.

He added that Tanzania has passed through hard times towards a growing and strengthened democracy, and through it, has come across a number of challenges.

He said what Tanzanians should be proud of is the new constitution processes.

“This shows that we have made a very big step compared to other African countries,” he said.

Elaborating on the conference, he said about 11 delegates from African countries and three democracy promoting organisations will attend the TCD organised meeting in collaboration with The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).

However, Mbatia added that since Tanzania is the host of the conference, either President Jakaya Kikwete or Vice President Dr Gharib Bilal is expected to officiate at the conference.