COURT DELIVERS A JUDGMENT ON MATTER CONCERNING ELECTIONS OF TANZANIA REPRESENTATIVES TO EALA

East African Court of Justice Arusha, 26th September 2014: The First Instance Division today delivered a judgment on a matter concerning the election of Tanzania representatives to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). 

The case was filed by Anthony Calist Komu, a member of the political party Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) against the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania. The Applicant who unsuccessfully contested for EALA membership was challenging the process of the said elections on grounds that it violated Article 50(1) of the EAC Treaty. 

The Applicant prayed for declarations that, (a) the election for members of the East African Legislative Assembly conducted by the Parliament of Tanzania on 17/4/2012 was in flagrant violation of Articles 50 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community (b) a declaration that in obtaining the representatives from Opposition Political Parties and Tanzania Mainland Article 50 of the same Treaty envisages, inter alia, the observance and compliance of the principal of proportional representation (c) order prohibiting the Parliament of Tanzania from further violation of Article 50 of the Treaty by not complying with the principal of proportional representation and allowing candidates from political parties which are not represented in the national assembly. 

 The Court in delivering the judgment declared that to the extent that the election for members of the EALA conducted by the National Assembly of the United Republic of Tanzania on 17/4/2012 was premised on only political parties as the sole grouping as opposed to all other groups envisaged in Article 50(1) of the Treaty, then the National Assembly of the United Republic of Tanzania violated the said Article. 

Secondly, the Court made a declaration that by allowing a political party without representation in the National Assembly (Tanzania Democratic Alliance -TADEA) to field a candidate in the election of 17/4/2012 for representatives to the EALA, then the National Assembly of Tanzania was in violation of Article 50(1) of the Treaty. Finally the Court ordered the Applicant be granted a quarter costs of the case for having partly succeeded in his case. 

For editors Article 50 (1) of the Treaty provides that; The National Assembly of each Partner State shall elect, not from among its members, nine member s of the Assembly, who shall represent as much as it is feasible, the various political parties represented in the National Assembly, shades of opinion, gender and other special interest groups in that Partner State, in a accordance with such procedure a s the National Assembly of each Partner State may determine.