Ukawa partners fail to name candidate

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Mr James Mbatia (left) and Mr Freeman Mbowe, chairmen of NCCR-Mageuzi and Chadema, respectively, arrive for Ukawa talks yesterday at Colosseum Hotel, Dar es Salaam.

Dar es Salaam. The Coalition of Defenders of the People’s Constitution (Ukawa) yesterday failed to name its presidential candidate even as officials told journalists that they have already picked him.

Addressing reporters at the end of their day-long meeting at Colosseum Hotel, NCCR-Mageuzi chairman, Mr James Mbatia, said after prolonged discussions, they decided to forward some of the issues they agreed upon to individual parties so that they can debate and internalise them.

“Ukawa isn’t a political party. It is a unity of parties which isn’t legally binding. We have discussed several issues including policies and we have forwarded our deliberation to the parties which will discuss and report back,” he said.

However, Mr Mbatia said that in their discussions, they have already settled for a presidential candidate but he declined to name him, promising that he would be known within the next seven days.

He said they wanted to unveil their candidate at a big rally to be attended by leaders, members and supporters from all the partners to the coalition.

Mr Mbatia said yesterday’s discussions involved a number of technical issues which will need to be sorted out by individual parties before they make firm commitment to support a single presidential flag bearer.

Ukawa is made up of four parties; Chadema, NCCR-Mageuzi, NLD and CUF. Yesterday’s meeting was attended by representatives from all parties except CUF.

Contacted by The Citizen on why they did not participate in the meeting CUF’s deputy secretary general (Mainland) Ms Magdalena Sakaya, said that they were still holding internal meetings over the matter.

“We notified our coalition partners that we’re still having internal meetings and we would be late,” she said, adding: “As of now we haven’t sent any of our member or leader there and if there is anyone from CUF in the meeting he is only attending on their personal capacity.”

While CUF skipped the meeting, things seemed to be difficult for those who attended. The meeting which started as early as 9am kept the party leaders in closed doors even after 12 hours at 9pm it was still going on, and the leaders only took short breaks for lunch and afternoon coffee and iftar.

The meeting was attended by among others, by Mr Freeman Mbowe, Mr James Mbatia and Dr Emmanuel Makaidi who are chairmen for Chadema, NCCR and NLD respectively.

Sources from inside the meeting confided to this paper that CUF’s absence caused tension and some members blamed the party, saying what it was doing was against the spirit of the unity and may break the coalition if the matter is not going to be well addressed.