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Pull out and you pay for it, CUF tells candidates
2005-07-13 09:06:48
By Sharon Sauwa
Civic United Front candidates will pay dearly for pulling out of this year’s general election – literally.
CUF candidates who will opt out of the October 30 elections will be liable to pay hefty compensation, the party said on Monday.
CUF Director of Planning and Elections Hamad Masoud said all those who would pull out after being endorsed to vie for parliamentary and civic seats would have to compensate the opposition party.
Parliamentary and House of Representatives candidates will have to pay the party 50m/- while civic aspirants will be required to pay 15m/-.
Masoud said the party would enter into legally binding agreements with all candidates before their names were submitted to the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and the Zanzibar electoral body, ZEC.
Any candidate who would refuse to sign the agreement would be promptly struck off and replaced with another candidate, the CUF official added.
CUF came up with the provision following lessons learnt in the run-up to the 2000 elections.
“There were cases of candidates failing to hand in their nomination forms or pulling out at the eleventh hour.
This new requirement is aimed at ensuring that this does not happen again,” Masoud said.
Several candidates had already signed the agreements in Kinondoni District, he added.
“Hopefully, candidates will be more serious this time round,” Masoud said.
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