Tanzania: Chongolo Tells Off Power Mongers

THE Ruling CCM party’s Secretary General, Daniel Chongolo, has warned its cadres against making preparations for the 2025 general election, urging them to focus on the upcoming intra-party elections.

Mr Chongolo said they noted with concern the tendency by some party members who were making groundwork for the councillorship and general elections in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

“You have to think of the coming party’s internal election. Stop preparing your people, stop making preparations for the 2025 general election,” Mr Chongolo warned on Sunday at a party’s ceremony to welcome a newly elected party’s deputy chairperson (mainland), Abdulrahman Kinana.

The event, held at Dar es Salaam’s Diamond Jubilee Hall, was attended by hundreds of members.

“A good politician always begins thinking of nearby elections. If you see a politician start preparing a person now so that he could benefit in the future they are no longer good politicians. A smart politician makes preparations when days have approached. The one who thinks of something at the right time,” Mr Chongolo argued.

He said yesterday alone he received over 800 texts from party members while he was at the event, many of them blaming or speaking negatively about others over elections.

“A good leader is always chosen by God. It’s God who prepares future leaders. The problem with us is that we have quite big ambitions without thoroughly assessing ourselves,” he stated.

He told the members that they should bear in mind that CCM needs good leaders who could speak for citizens and address their challenges.

He commended the party members in Dar es Salaam region for their big response ahead of internal elections since the party raised the curtain for elections at grassroots level on April 2, this year.

“I commend Dar es Salaam since it recorded high participation of members. Let me remind you that in this party no one monopolises the right to be elected, neither owns leadership positions. We all have equal rights. And when it is time for elections all posts become vacant for any member to contest. It’s your right to use your constitutional right to elect or be elected,” he encouraged.

Mr Kinana was endorsed as new deputy chairperson during the assembly held two weeks ago, at which the party made changes in the party’s constitution to make the party stronger.

Mr Chongolo mentioned some of the changes including making the party’s regional secretaries be members of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) so that they convey the decisions made from the top organ to the grassroots.