39
105. The Respondent also elaborated on the alleged mischief which
sought to be addressed by the Eleventh Constitutional Amendment.
They stated that prior to the passing of Eleventh Constitutional
Amendment, a reading of Article 21 of the Constitution dealt exclusively
with the right to participate in national public affairs, while the
qualifications for party affiliation for Presidential, Parliamentary, as well
as Local Government posts, were enshrined in Articles 39, 47 and 67 of
the Constitution. Therefore, Article 21 of the Constitution was read in
isolation from the provisions dealing with the requirement of party
affiliation for participation in national public affairs. This was a mischief
which was caused by non-harmonisation of the two sets of provisions.
The Eleventh Constitutional amendment was meant to cure this mischief
by harmonizing and cross referring the provisions dealing with party
sponsorship, that is, Articles 39, 47 and 67 to Article 21 which deals with
the right to participate in public affairs. They also maintained the already
existing provisions by solidifying and concretizing them. Similarly, the
intention of the government was to allow participation in public affairs
through political parties, bearing in mind that the amendments were only
made two years after the enactment of the Political Parties Act in 1992
and Tanzania was still in the throes of establishing a multiparty
democracy. The country, at the time, was as yet to hold its very first
general election under the multi-party system, and it was still at its infant
stage of multiparty democracy, and there was not any compelling social
need for independent candidature.