Argue for Provision to empower the Electorate to remove underperformed MPs and Ward-Councillors

Activists have called on the new constitution to have a provision that would empower the electorate to remove any Members of Parliament  and ward-councilors who underperformed during their five-year tenure of office as representatives.

They said Members of Parliament and ward councilors were people's representatives and the mouth piece of their electorates, and therefore,  they are obliged to effectively are efficiently represent their people and fulfill the promises they made during campaigns, to bring desired development in their respective constituencies.

Speaking at a training of activists of the legal and human rights center (LHRC) on human rights monitoring, held in Tanga recently, they said that since they were elected, some MPs and ward Councilors have done little and others have completely failed their electorate, but continued enjoying public resources and tax payers’ money because there was no any provision that requires them to leave office for other competent people.

Legal Officer for Human rights Monitoring unit of the centre, Laetitia Petro, said that it was a burden to wait until five years while the MP could not effectively and efficiently represent his people and discharge his or her duties properly.

“In this new constitution, people should be active and make sure that there is a provision that empowers the electorates to remove the MPs  who have failed to fulfill their responsibilities”, she said.

For his part, Abrahamani Zayumba from Tanga said that because Members of Parliament served the public, they should also be fired in case one fails to deliver in his first few years in office.

“If in other organizations, people are fired for misbehaving or failing to perform why should the MP be spared ,while we know that some of them have never fulfilled their promises”, he wondered.

Ibrahim Tuli from Kisarawe said that many constituencies have developed very little, because some Members of Parliament were active only when the elections approach in order to win their voters.

Citing an example, Tuli who is albino, explained that the members of parliament and ward councilors were talking about albino killings during elections campaigns ,but after the elections, very few continued to find solutions to the albino killings.

“Albinos are being killed on a daily basis, but members of parliaments and the ward councilors do not seem to take it seriously to end the menace, though they would be very active on the matter during the elections” he said. 

In recent years, some electorates have complained about their Members of Parliament and ward counselors for not doing enough to fulfil their promises and bring development, but they failed to remove them because there is no law or clause that provides for revoking their representation.