The NEC chairman (retired) Judge Damian Lubuva told the Guardian yesterday in a telephone interview when reacting to allegations by Chadema   that the Commission in collaboration with Chama Cha Mapinduzi  (CCM) were all out  to temper with October election results.

Lubava said the Commission could not work on rumours and that it s waiting for Chadema to submit official complaints.

 “If the party has details on the matter it should bring them to us and then we will work on them immediately instead of going to the media,” Lubuva said. 

“The Commission is fulfilling its obligations without any pressure from any political party or government. I have no enough details on this matter unless I receive official complaints from Chadema and we will work on them and announce our findings,” he added.

He however assured the public that there will be no vote rigging in the coming elections because NEC is fulfilling its obligations by abiding by the laws.

Speaking to the media yesterday in Dar es Salaam chairperson of Chadema Women Wing Halima Mdee accused NEC of being used by CCM to tamper  with votes counting.

She said that over two million voters’ cards have been produced despite the fact that the process has been concluded in order to steal votes in the coming General Election.

According to her an informant from NEC had communicated the information to Chadema after uncovering the plot by CCM and NEC to rig the elections.

She said CCM had organised particular people who move from house to house bribing people so that they can provide their personal details available in their voter cards so that they can reproduce them.  

 “I call upon people not to sell their votes by any means…I urge you to ignore such people who come to”, said Mdee.

  She also called upon NEC to be serious with the verification process because up to now there was a likelihood that many people will not verify their information.

“Voter verification in Dar es Salaam is also a problem which NEC to solve it once and for all…we want people to verify their names at the centres where they registered and not at wards as the Commission had announced so as to enable every one to verify the information,” she added.

For his part, Saed Kubenea, Ubungo constituency aspirant on Chadema ticket said that the party had in hand 150 such  voters cards. 

He said NEC has been fabricating election results for several years but in this year it will not succeed because the people themselves are tired.

“You know people’s awareness had increased as they were now tired of hard times and they are now ready   for  change in the coming General Election,” he said.

Over the weekend the Guardian on Sunday had reliably established that Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) System has been put into serious question with only two months ahead of the October General Election  as it failed to detect voters who registered more than once, contrary to reassurance by the National Electoral Commission (NEC). 

It established that some individuals may have registered themselves more than once under BVR devoid of detection by the reputed high security system.  

At issue is the unraveling of two BVR cards belonging to a voter identified as Samwel S Choggo, courtesy of an individual who preferred anonymity but had an access to the system’s underworld. 

According to the details in the cards, Choggo who was born on January 1, 1991 registered himself at Dovya Street, Bunju Ward in Dar es Salaam Region where he was issued voter’s card No.T-1000-0906-706-4. 

But a person of the same name born on the same date, with a rather twisted snapshot pose and in a different shirt holds voter’s card No.T-1003-5915-554-3 registered at Miswe Chini Street, Mbwawa Ward.

Contacted, NEC’s Director of Election Kailima Kombwey said voters will now use the old voting system using BVR cards, and that there wouldn’t be any computer or BVR machines to trace their verification.