Judge Mutungi deregisters 3 political parties

 

THE Registrar of Political Parties, Judge Francis Mutungi, has cancelled registration of three political parties after realising that they had contravened the provisions of the Political Parties Act of 1992 and its regulations.

Judge Mutungi said that deregistration process resulted from verification exercise of compliance with the provisions of the registration and other requirements of the law of political parties that have permanent registration held in June to July, this year. 

 

“With the powers bestowed upon me under section 19 of Political Parties Act of 1992, I hereby from today cancel the registration of three parties which are Chama Cha Haki na Ustawi (CHAUSTA), the African Progressive Party of Tanzania (APPT-Maendeleo) and Jahazi Asilia,” he told reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

He further said prior to the process, all the parties concerned were informed in writing and given opportunity to explain why their registration should not be cancelled.

In their defence the parties failed to provide satisfactory reasons against the move, but only maintained that they had not violated the law and hence they were still eligible.

In elaboration, Judge Mutungi further said reasons which led to deregistration to political parties include not having an office in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar as required by the Political Parties Act.

“Other reasons include not having members in Zanzibar pursuant to subsection 10 (b), failure to keep records of income and expenditure of the party in accordance with section 14 (1) (a) and failing to submit the party’s annual income and expenditure statements to the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) for review,” he added.

Judge Mutungi also mentioned that the parties failed to submit to the Registrar of Political Parties a declaration of the list of assets of their parties and failure to implement declarations of section 15 (1) which states that all financial income of members of the party should be included in the account of the party.