By President Samia Suluhu

In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly decided to announce countries worldwide to celebrate Democracy Day every day, 15 September of each year.

This day is celebrated for promoting democracy in every country with sound systems. So, today, we as a country should discuss facing our democracy.

In celebrating this day, there is no need to thank Tanzanians for maintaining peace and stability in the country. Here, join the Secretary General of the United Nations and me in the message he gave today to the world that; I am quoting,

“Now is the time to ensure that Democracy, Development and Justice of Humans are things that stick together”. “Now is the time to stand up for democratic principles, equality,
Cooperation and Unity”.

Although for this year, 2022, the United Nations in this year celebration has dedicated itself to celebrating democracy, particularly media freedom. And since we do not have a common way of practising democracy around the world,  in our case, we have dedicated our time to talking and dealing with things that our political parties have been demanding for far too long.

Political parties have been demanding to be allowed to continue holding rallies with their members. As the government, we would love to take this opportunity to inform them that the task force responsible for collecting opinions of different democracy advocates and stakeholders has emphasized the urge to allow political rallies but has expressed concerns about the laws and regulations binding the process.

The government uses this opportunity to explain that the Task Force coordinating the views of Stakeholders of the democracy of many political parties has continued to insist on permission to hold meetings of political parties, except has expressed concern over the laws and regulations governing the issue.

Democracy is a process that deals with the way things are run to comply with the people’s wishes politically, economically, and socially and to follow the respective countries’ customs and traditions, including citizens’ participation.

In Tanzania, we are in various stages of expanding the scope of citizen participation based on our environment while being guided and the spirit of reconciliation that creates equality, solidarity and unity.

So then, in this context, I suggest that we wait for comments and the recommendations of the Task Force on the amendment of those Laws and Regulations and that this issue will be announced in the next few days.