TFF elections set for Sept 29

The long-awaited general elections of the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) will be held on September 29 this year, the local football governing body has revealed.

Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) President Leodegar Tenga

TFF President Leodegar Tenga told a press conference in Dar es Salaam that the elections will be preceded by a constitutional review assembly, which has been slated for July 13. It follows the world football governing body, FIFA, order for a fresh election process to choose new executives for the TFF, following cancellation of February 24 controversial elections.

The decision to hold the polls in September was reached during the TFF’s executive committee meeting held in the city yesterday and presided by the outgoing president, Tenga. FIFA had ordered that the elections be held not later than October 30, this year.

The order came two weeks after a visit to Tanzania by FIFA officials to investigate allegations of irregularities in the contentious election process. “The TFF Executive Committee has received an official letter from FIFA and executed the order. We received FIFA directives instructing us what to do, neither TFF nor anyone can do the opposite,” he said.

Tenga said among the directives was that TFF should immediately amend its constitution and create the Ethics Committee and the Election Appeal Committee before proceeding with the election process. “We have moved to make sure that the election is conducted before October 30 as per FIFA directives,” Tenga noted, adding that the new election is free for all interested candidates, including new aspirants.

He said the main task would be setting up regulations that would govern the proposed Ethics Committee and the Election Appeal Committee to avoid any interference between the two organs. He said first draft of the regulations should be ready by May 30, when it would be submitted to FIFA for its approval before the TFF could proceed.

FIFA officials, led by Head of Membership Department, Primo Corvaro, were in the country last month to examine the crisis that had hit the country’s football following controversies that arose ahead of the body’s aborted general elections. The FIFA delegation earmarked certain flaws in the TFF constitution which includes lack of an organ that would be responsible to deal with football leaders’ degree of integrity and credulity.

In a letter signed by Secretary General Jerome Valcke, FIFA criticised TFF for eliminating some of the election candidates who are alleged to have inferior integrity and have in the past found guilty of funds embezzlement but so far there has never been a verdict. FIFA argued that the candidates should have been punished first by the relevant committee (ethics committee) before being excluded by the Election Committee.

Source Tanzania Daily News

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