The Tanzanian government is under pressure to make public the revised version of the Constitutional Review Bill 2011.
At an open forum organised by civil society organisations and activists held on Saturday July 30th 2011, the participants demanded that the revised bill be subjected to public debate and scrutiny before it is tabled in Parliament. This came on the heels of unconfirmed reports that the government had already revised the Bill and was intending to table it before parliament.
During the meeting, the participants accused the government of reluctance to share the document and for conducting the process in secrecy. They vowed not to relent on their quest to have the Bill released to the public.
Mr Deus Kibamba, the chairman of the Constitutional Debate Forum claimed that the government appeared not to be ready for change, and was trying to delay the process. He alleged that the government had secretly started amending the current constitution without following the right legal procedures and warned that the country could experience chaos if the process of writing the new constitution was not transparent. He was quoted as saying “We will not accept any more cheating on this. We are fully prepared to be jailed or killed if they do it contrary to the public’s expectation.”
The controversial Bill was first introduced early this year but was overwhelmingly rejected during debates in Dodoma, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar forcing the government to withdraw it for amendments.