The Court of Appeal has dismissed with costs the application for review filed by three CCM members challenging the court’s decision to reinstate Mr Godbless Lema (Chadema) as Member of Parliament for Arusha Urban Constituency.
Mr Godbless Lema
A panel led by Justice Engola Kileo ruled yesterday that the application by the three CCM members was devoid of merit. The justices declared that the three applicants had no locus standi in the matter.
The three applicants, Musa Hamis Mkanga, Agness Gidion Mollel and Happy Emmanuel Kivuyo had advanced several grounds to fault the judgement given by the court on December 21, 2012. In its decision, the appellate court quashed the decision by High Court Judge Gabriel Rwakibarila, who had nullified the results in favour of Mr Lema in 2010 general election against his closest challenger, Dr Batilda Burian.
The appeal court judges held, among others, that the three applicants had no locus standi to petition the High Court to challenge the election results on grounds that the winner had violated election rules for using abusive language during campaigning against the loser.
But during the hearing of the application yesterday, advocate for the applicants, Alute Mughwai alleged that the court had wrongly claimed that it had no evidence indicating that his clients were legitimate voters.
The advocate also claimed that the constitution and the Election Act allow the voters to file a case, opposing the election results even if their rights were not affected.
However, advocate Method Kimomogoro for the respondent in the matter, Mr Lema, asked the panel to dismiss the application in question for the applicants lacked locus and asked the court to condemn them to pay costs.
By ANNE ROBI, Tanzania Daily News
