Yes, I’m an ex-convict, says DP running mate
 
2005-08-12 07:54:26
By Mwinyi Sadallah, Zanzibar

Democratic Party (DP) Union presidential running mate Soud Said Soud says he will not pull out of the race despite serving a two-year jail sentence two decades ago.

Soud made the remarks yesterday in response to suggestions that he is constitutionally ineligible to run in the October 30 general election after he was convicted of a criminal offence for which he served time in prison in the early 1980s.

’It’s true that the Union Constitution bars anybody who has been jailed for more than six months to seek top elective posts, but I’m staying put…I haven’t even thought about pulling out,’ he said.

’Article 67 of the Union Constitution denies people their basic human rights and this is why there are calls for it to be repealed,’ Soud added.

He said he was convicted and jailed 23 years ago following a dispute with a business partner and added that he did not kill anybody.

Soud said queries about his past were raised after some opposition leaders in Zanzibar realised that DP was a force to be reckoned with ”especially in Pemba”.

Tanzania Democratic Alliance (Tadea) Planning and Publicity Secretary Juma Khatib recently said Soud was not eligible to contest the forthcoming elections as a running mate.

He said the opposition would suffer ”irreparable’ damage if Soud’s candidacy was challenged because of his ’shady dealings” in the past and the fact that he was jailed for two years.

Khatib said the Union vice-presidency was a respectable position and called on the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to carefully scrutinise the backgrounds of Union presidential candidates and their running mates ahead of the October elections.

Soud will be DP Chairman Christopher Mtikila’s running mate in the Union presidential election. Mtikila was jailed for a year for sedition in 1999.

• SOURCE: Guardian