DAR ES SALAAM, Oct. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The hearing of a Tanzanian opposition petition has been postponed to next month due to the failure of court appearance by representatives of the petitioners,according to local press reports.

    Newspaper Daily News said on Saturday that all the four advocates for the petition seeking to block next month's civic polls failed to show up on Friday at the High Court of Dar es Salaam and that the judges had to postpone the hearing to next month.

    Only two of the 12 petitioners were present at the court when the three judges started the procedure.

    The 12 opposition parties joined hands on Thursday in filing a petition for a high court injunction on the scheduled local polls to be held next month. Lawyers representing the opposition partiesfiled the petition for the high court to issue a temporary order against the local government elections on the ground that some of the chosen processes are against the constitution.

    They asked the court to temporarily stay the elections, slated for Nov. 21 and 28, pending final disposal of their petition.

    The opposition parties demanded an independent electoral body supervise the elections and the minister of state in the President's Office be refrained from being in charge of regional administration and local government from holding the polls.

    The opposition parties explained that they had petitioned in fear of the consequence of the use of incumbency in favor of the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi party. Enditem