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{
    "id": 727981,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/727981/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 179,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Midiwo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 184,
        "legal_name": "Washington Jakoyo Midiwo",
        "slug": "jakoyo-midiwo"
    },
    "content": "I thought that this Committee would have, at least, recommended, them being part of this House, that we deal with these issues after the party primaries in May. When we come back on 8th May, 2017 we will still have eight months to go. If you look at what happened in the last elections, you will find that we passed these regulations like a month to the election. In the last Parliament, we were fewer than the Members in this House today. However, the proposals from the IEBC would have barred nearly 90 per cent of this House from contesting the elections and yet members simply walked out. It was, I think, less than 10 of us present. I remember that day we debated until midnight. I plead with the House and the Chair that we do not rush this. Nothing will go wrong if we do not rush but something can go wrong if we rush. Many things which we promised we would improve on may not be improved. Hon. Speaker, we can talk about party nominations, but I am worried because I said here that the last amendments to the Elections Act were full of errors. I said people would regret. How nice it is to watch the same people who were saying, “His Excellency amesema. Baba amesema.” We now realise that the thing has serious flaws. We now have an opportunity to mitigate. For example, there is a clause that says that political parties shall conduct their nominations using the register of its members deposited with the Registrar of Political Parties. Hon. Speaker, even the register that the Registrar has, many people who check their names find that they are in some briefcase parties. So, we are trying to do something which we really do not have capacity to do. However, the big thing that this House needs to address itself to is this: why should the Registrar of Political Parties be the custodian of political parties’ affairs? These political parties need to be managed by their own constitutions. Indeed, they have constitutions, which is a requirement of law. They also have their own regulations. However, when we say that they should do it according to that register with the Registrar of Political Parties, we are making the Registrar of Political Parties do work which is not constitutionally hers. We need to revise that because we now know that we have made a mistake. Since that law has issues, we need to withdraw it and recognise the fact that some of the laws that we passed are bound to make the process muddier. We need to do things differently. It is important to note that IEBC cannot use regulations which have not been passed here. However, many a times we pass very bad laws that even make the work of IEBC very difficult. So, I plead with the Chairman that we do not conclude this debate today. We should leave a The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}