E-mail from Tanzanian. 30.Oct.'95
ZANZIBAR ELECTION RESULTS (Kiswahili)
Ningependa kufafanua juu ya kitendawili kilichowatanza, kama ifuatavyo
> kwa mujibu wa taarifa RASMI zilizotolewa na Tume ya Uchaguzi Zanzibar
> (ZEC):
>
> Kura zote zilizopigwa: 333,899
> Kura za NDIO alizopata Dr. Salmin(CCM) 165,271
> Kura za NDIO alizopata Seif Shariff (CUF) 163,706
> Kura zilizoharibika 4,922
>
> Jumla ya kura za NDIO walizopata wagombea hao wawili ni 328,977.
> Asilimia 50.2 iliyosemwa kuwa Dr. Salmin Amour ameipata imekokotolewa
> kwa kutumia jumla ya kura za NDIO TU na sio idadi ya KURA ZOTE
> zilizopigwa. Ni vivyo hivyo kwa asilimia 49.8 iliyotangwazwa kuwa Seif
> Shariff Hamad ameipata. Na ndio maana kwa pamoja zinafanya asilimia
> 100.
>
> Kwa kifupi namna hiyo ya kukokotoa matokeo SI SAHIHI kwa mujibu wa
> taratibu zilivyo. Mgombea ili ashinde, ni LAZIMA apate zaidi ya
> asilimia 50 YA KURA ZOTE ZILIZOPIGWA!! Kwa kuwa kura zilizoharibika ni
> asilimia 1.47 ya kura zote, alizopata Dr. Salmin ni asilimia 49.5 ya
> kura zote, na alizopata Seif Shariff ni asilimia 49.03, basi uchaguzi
> wa rais wa Zanzibar haukumpata mshindi!! Maneno hayo yalielezwa kwa
> wazi kabisa na Seif Shariff mwenyewe katika mkutano wa mwisho wa
> kampeni ya CUF, mjini Dar es Salaam. Mkutano ambao ulihudhuriwa na
> watu wengi sana kwa mujibu wa taarifa nilizozipata.
>
> Ukitaka kujua kama si sahihi kutumia kigezo cha jumla ya kura za NDIO
> tu kukokotolea matokeo, chukua mfano bandia ambapo kura zilizoharibika
> ni robo tatu ya kura zote zilizopigwa. Sasa ndio kweli mshindi ahitaji
> kupata nusu tu ya ile robo iliyobaki yenye kura safi, yaani "thumni"
> (moja kwenye nane) tu ya kura zote zilizopigwa!!??
>
> Jibu wanalo Dr. Salmin na makomandoo wenzake!!
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (Reuter) - Incumbent Salmin Amour,
declared the winner of Zanzibar's presidential election, was
sworn in Friday despite unease about the result among foreign
observers.
Amour was re-elected by the narrowest of margins and the
opposition Civic United Front (CUF) decried the outcome of last
Sunday's poll on Tanzania's Indian Ocean islands as a fraud.
Amour was sworn in for his second five-year term by
Zanzibar's chief justice in front of 25,000 cheering supporters
of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party in the Amaan sports
stadium.
The CCM has ruled as the sole legal party in Tanzania since
1965. After the dress rehearsal in Zanzibar it will face a
tougher multi-party test next Sunday in the presidential and
parliamentary elections in the whole Union, formed by the
islands and mainland Tanganyika in 1964.
Friday's swearing-in drew only a handful of accredited
diplomats and U.N. officials, reflecting displeasure about the
counting of the result by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission
(ZEC).
But the 140-strong foreign observer team, working under the
U.N. umbrella team, were deeply divided about how to react.
Diplomatic sources said the United Nations was reluctant to make
a tough statement, wanting to preserve its relations with Amour.
Western donor countries who paid more than $15 million to
finance Tanzania's first muli-party experience were taking a
tougher stance but had made no public utterance by Friday.
The Organization of African Unity (OAU), which with other
observers said polling Oct. 22 was fair and free, was also mute
Friday.
Tanzania's outgoing president, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, flew in
from Dar es Salaam to watch Amour's swearing-in. So did the CCM
candidate to succeed him, Benjamin Mkapa.
DAR ES SALAAM, Oct 30 (Reuter) - Organisers of Tanzania's
first multi-party elections held crisis talks on Monday after
voting went badly wrong and confusion reigned in parts of the
huge East African country.
The extent of the confusion was unclear even to the National
Electoral Commission (NEC), and the ruling party joined the
opposition in complaining about slipshod preparations.
NEC chairman Lewis Makame met senior aides late on Sunday
and into the early hours of Monday. On Monday morning Makame
started another round of talks to try to clear the confusion.
NEC spokeswoman Mwajuma Mponji told Reuters that voting
remained suspended in the commercial capital of Dar Es Salaam
and the commission would issue a clarifying statement later.
Mponji and other NEC officials were unable to say where poll
difficulties had occurred elsewhere.
Newspapers reported on Monday that polling went smoothly in
some parts of Tanzania but the overall picture was hard to
establish because of Tanzania's poor communications.
``There is serious confusion. No one knows the problems
regional officials had. Only Dar Es Salaam problems are clear
and that is why polling stands suspended,'' one election
official said.
One of Makame's options was to order a second day of voting
on Monday in areas where election officials, ballot boxes and
other electoral material arrived late on Sunday or not at all.
The disarray marred a historic poll in which the issue was
whether the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) pary would be able
to survive a real challenge after 30 years in sole command.
Unknown numbers of the nine-million electorate were unable
to vote on Sunday, either for the CCM or 12 opposition parties
led by Augustine Mrema's NCCR-Mageuzi.
The CCM denied opposition claims that it planned the chaos.
``CCM states categorically that it has no reason or desire
to want to interfere in the electoral process in any way,'' the
ruling party said in a statement on Sunday.
A coordinating committee of eight opposition parties,
including NCCR-Mageuzi, condemned the confusion. ``We have noted
so many irregularities which amount to a situation where the
election will not be free and fair,'' committee chairman Evarist
Maembe told reporters.
The electoral commission also had problems with its army of
officials manning 40,000 polling stations who were either
unhappy with their allowances, ranging from $6 to $12 a day, or
complained of late payment.
Returning officers and assistants in areas where voting went
badly slept in their polling stations to protect ballot boxes.
Foreign donors, led by Tanzania's Scandinavian friends and
former colonial power Britain, provided about $15 million to
finance the elections. It would cost Tanzania -- or foreign
donors -- about $2 million a day to extend voting.
The confusion was a second mishap in Tanzania's first foray
into multi-party elections since the union was formed in 1964
with the merger of mainland Tanganyika and the Indian Ocean
islands of Zanzibar.
Regional polls in Zanzibar a week earlier were marred by
opposition allegations of CCM rigging and a call by 17 donor
countries for ``corrective action'' if the Zanzibar result was
found to be inaccurate.
The letter from whom knows Zanzibar condition well.29.Oct.'95
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DAR ES SALAAM, Oct 29 (Reuter) - Tanzanians go to the polls on
Sunday in their first multi-party presidential and parliamentary
elections after three decades of one-party rule.
The nine million voters had, in theory, to decide which party could
best improve the economic prospects of one of Africa's poorest
nations.
But the issue of corruption dominated the campaign and was brought
into sharp focus by widespread allegations that the ruling party
rigged elections a week ago in Zanzibar, one half of the Tanzanian
union.
Presidential candidate Benjamin Mkapa of the ruling Chama Cha
Mapinduzi (CCM) argued at an eve-of-poll rally in Dar es Saalam
that only his party had the experience to guide the country
forward.
``I have never taken a bribe in my life and my party does not make
rash promises,'' he told a crowd of around 12,000 people.
A rival rally by the main opposition party, NCCR-Mageuzi, attracted
about 15,000 people and was shown a letter from 17 Western
embassies voicing concern over the Zanzibar vote and calling for a
recount.
Many youngsters in audience chanted: ``We would rather die than
vote for Mkapa.''
Allegations of vote-rigging in Zanzibar, where incumbent CCM
President Salmin Amour was declared the winner and hastily sworn in
on Friday, have gone largely unnoticed in mainland Tanzania's
press.
Four candidates were standing for the presidency of Tanzania,
formed in 1964 by the union of the East African state of Tanganyika
and the Indian Ocean islands of Zanzibar.
Mkapa's rivals were Augustine Mrema of NCCR, Ibrahim Lipumba of the
Civic United Front, Zanzibar's main opposition party, and John
Cheyo of the United Democratic Party.
Unless one candidate wins more than 50 percent of the total vote, a
run-off ballot between the leading two contenders will be held
within 40 days.
DAR ES SALAAM, Oct 28 (Reuter) - Tanzania's first multi-
party elections will be held on Sunday in a climate of suspicion
a week after the botched dress rehearsal in Zanzibar.
The main opposition presidential candidate, Augustine Mrema,
predicted rigging and key donors called for a check on the
result of Zanzibar's presidential poll.
The Indian Ocean islands joined mainland Tanganyika in a
union in 1964 and since then a single party, now named Chama Cha
Mapinduzi (CCM) has ruled unchallenged.
``We are aware of what happened in Zanzibar and I strongly
believe it may be repeated on the Tanzanian mainland,'' Mrema, a
former policeman running for the NCCR-Mageuzi party, told
Reuters on Friday night.
``We feel that there will be rigging,'' Mrema said at his
seaside house in Dar es Salaam, claiming his party had recovered
10,000 ``lost'' ballot papers from CCM supporters.
The government-owned Daily News on Saturday reported that
one presidential candidate for the union, Ibrahim Lipumba of the
Civic United Front (CUF), had decided to withdraw.
``I am not standing for the presidential election because
the whole game is futile and bogus,'' the daily quoted Libumba
as telling a news conference on Friday night.
His party was at the centre of the rigging row in Zanzibar
where the electoral commission on Thursday declared CCM's Salmin
Amour as winner of the islands' presidency by a margin of only
1,500 votes against CUF's Seif Shariff Hamad.
Amour was sworn in on Friday but most of the 140 foreign
observers in Zanzibar were unhappy with the verdict and most
diplomats stayed away from the ceremony.
The United States withheld its endorsement of the result and
the embassy in Tanzania said in a statement on Friday that
foreign observers had found ``serious discrepancies'' in at
least one Zanzibar constituency.
A group of 18 key donor nations who have provided $15 millon
to finance Tanzania's first pluralist polls went further,
reporting discrepancies and calling for a recount.
``We stress the importance of completing such a
reconciliation and urge that corrective action be taken if
appropriate,'' the Dutch ambassador, spokesman for the 18, said
in a statement.
Zanzibar is a side-show to the main event on Sunday but the
possible rigging on the islands has cast a shadow over the
integrity of the electoral process overall.
Tanzania's registered electorate of 8,950,151 voters will go
to nearly 40,000 polling in the huge country to elect their
president and 232 members of the union parliament.
President Ali Hassan Mwinyi of CCM is stepping down after
serving the maximum of two five-year terms. The ruling party,
which accepted the return of multi-party politics in 1992, is
fielding former journalist Benjamin Mkapa as its candidate.
Mkapa has the full backing of CCM founder Julius Nyerere,
the former president of Tanzania and a man of such influence
that he is universally known as Mwalimu, or teacher.
But Mrema, who split with CCM this year and is running
largely on an anti-corruption ticket, told Reuters he was still
confident of being Tanzania's third president.
``We don't think (Nyerere's) intervention will have any
impact at all, so far,'' Mrema said.
He said he had rejected an appeal by CUF, his party's
opposition ally, to boycott the elections. CUF decided to
boycott the union vote in Zanzibar after the alleged rigging and
apparently extended the decision to the mainland with Lipumba's
decision to withdraw from the presidential race.
That would leave Mkapa and Mrema to fight it out with a
third candidate, John Cheo, expected to trail badly.
National Electoral Commission (NEC) spokeswoman Mwajuma
Mponji said on Saturday the bulk of results was expected to be
known by Monday night.
VICTORY IS VICTORY SAYS AMOUR
The man declared the winner of the Zanzibar Presidential race, CCM candidate,
Salmin Amour says "Victory is victory - even if it is by one vote."
The re-elected ruling party president was speaking at a press conference soon
after the annoucement by the National Electoral Commission that the elections
were free and fair.
But from the leader of the losing CUF party, Seif Shariff Hamad, there was an
angry reaction.
Hamad said "We will not take part in the elections scheduled for Sunday on
the mainland."
He added that "the Zanzibar elections had been rigged and were not free and
fair." "CUF would not recognise the results," he said.
His threat to boycott the mainland elections - he is concerned that the same
irregularities used in Zanzibar would be applied in mainland Tanzania - casts
a grim shadow over the poll tomorrow.
Hamad blamed the electoral commission for the outcome of the elections, he
accused it of awarding the victory to CCM when the CUF had won by over 52
percent in the elections.
DONORS DEMAND RECOUNT OF ZANZIBAR POLL
The donor community in Tanzania say that international observers noted
discrepancies in the Zanzibar presidential election results and demanded a
reconciliation.
A statement issued in Dar es Salaam by the Dutch ambassador, Jan Wijenberg,
on behalf of 17 heads of mission of donor countries, said it had "found
discrepancies in the compilation of figures" in the just completed Zanzibar
polls.
The statement added that there, was need for a "reconciliation" and
"corrective action if appropriate."
Concerning the election for mainland Tanzania set for tomorrow the statement
said: "We consider it essential that the national elections proceed on a
free, fair and transparent basis and we would encourage all political parties
and citizens to participate in these elections."
Earlier Zanzibar president Salmin Amour was sworn in to a new five-year term,
less than 24 hours after being declared the winner of the controversial
elections.
President Amour scraped through with 1,565 votes, a margin of less than one
per cent. He scored 50.2 per cent of the vote against opposition candidate
Seif Shariff Hamad of the Civic United Front, who got 49.8.
The swearing-in ceremony was originally set for Thursday but was delayed as
the country waited for the results for four days.
ARMY SAYS IT WILL BE LOYAL TO WHOEVER IS ELECTED
The Tanzania People's Defence Force (TPDF) has assured President Ali Hassan
Mwinyi that it will be loyal to any president elected next week.
It also appealed to all parties participating in the elections to accept the
results "as the voice of many is the voice of God."
The TPDF gave the assurance at a farewell parade for President Mwinyi who is
also the commander in chief held at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
In its farewell message, the TPDF said it would comply with the constitution
as well as respect democratic rights.
The army also hailed President Mwinyi for his good governance for all the ten
years he has been in power, saying that press and judicial freedom had
mushroomed during his era.
It commended President Mwinyi's calmness in the transition period towards
multi-party system.
The TPDF also thanked the President for "working closely with the army."
President Mwinyi on his side hailed the army for working peacefully in a very
difficult environment.
JOURNALISTS, ARTISTS TOLD TO PROMOTE PEACE
Artists and journalists have been urged to promote peace and solidarity among
Tanzanians particularly during and after the election period.
The Dar es Salaam region commissioner, Ukiwaona Ditopile Mzuzuri, said
artists and journalists carried great influence. They could promote peace
but they could also be instruments of war.
He told a newly formed artists group, the Amani group, at Goethe Institute in
Dar es Salaam that they could play a very important role as they could convey
to the community messages with a powerful impact.
The letter from whom knows Zanzibar condition well.29.Oct.'95
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