Handeni: As the campaign for Handeni Urban Parliamentary seat heats up, over 110 members of parties forming the Constitutional Coalition, Ukawa, have jumped ship to join the ruling party.
A total of 115 members of the two parties in Handeni District handed over their parties’ cards to the CCM Regional Publicity Secretary, Mathew Mganga, at a campaign meeting to canvass support for the ruling Party’s candidate, Omari Kigoda at Kwenjugo Ward.
The opposition members said that they were determined to support Ukawa but were disappointed with the coalition’s failure to reach rapport on issues such as who would be the flag bearers for the coalition.
“I did a lot of mobilization to make sure Chadema wins in the Civic elections but our District leadership did not offer satisfactory cooperation for grassroots members and their major focus was on the parliamentary seat alone,” said Rajabu Viuli, the former Chadema Secretary for Kwenjugo ward. Vuli added that the district leadership also failed to give the ward leadership grants to run the party.
He said that they have decided to go back to CCM where they think they would work with the necessary support to bring changes in their new constituency.
