Zanzibar election News 15-26,Oct.'95
Police tear gas Tanzanian opposition rally
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (Reuter)Oct.15 - Tanzanian police tear gassed an opposition
political rally Saturday causing a stampede which left 27 people injured, local
newspapers said Sunday.
Police fired tear gas on the rally at Pemba Island after asking organisers of the
opposition Civic United Front (CUF) to disperse in favor of another rally nearby
organized by supporters of the incumbent president Dr. Salmin Amour, said the
pro-government Daily News.
"CUF supporters demanded that the request be put in writing and this infuriated
the police who fired warning shots in the air before hurling tear gas cannisters
at the crowd to disperse it," the newspaper said.
Three people were seriously injured and 24 more were taken to hospital when
police broke up the CUF rally.
Analysts said the incident is bound to raise tension just one week before the
Zanzibar islands go to the polls to elect the island' s president and parliament.
More than 95 per cent of Zanzibar's population, divided between the two main
islands of Unguja and Pemba, have registered for forthcoming elections.
CUF is confident of a landslide victory on Pemba said one Western diplomat who
visited the island recently.
Amour of the ruling CCM party is contesting the presidential elections against
Seif Shariff Hamad of CUF.
One week after the Zanzibar poll the rest of Tanzania will vote in the country's
first ever multiparty general elections.
It marks the stepping down from power of President Ali Hassan Mwinyi who has
held office for 10 years.
The Zanzibari poll is being keenly watched by observers because of a history of
violence during elections and because the result could affect mainland voting.
Both the CUF and the mainland opposition party NCCR-Mageuzi have
persistently complained that the ruling CCM, in power for three decades, has
mobilised the police to prevent them campaigning.
NCCR leaders last month cut short a tour of Tanga region and sought hospital
treatment after being tear-gassed by police.
Two more rallies were due to take place on Pemba Sunday.
Copyright 1995 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved. The above news report may
not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior
written consent of Reuters Ltd.
Bigg, Matt, Police tear gas Tanzanian opposition rally., Reuters, 10-15-1995.
ZANZIBAR-POLITICS: ZANZIBARIS PREPARE FOR FIRST
MULTIPARTY POLLS
ZANZIBAR, Oct. 20 (IPS) -- Zanzibaris vote in their first
multiparty polls on Oct. 22 amid uncertainty about the future of
the 31-year-old union linking their archipelago to mainland
Tanzania.
Eligible voters among the 750,000 Zanzibaris will elect members
of the isles' House of Representatives as well as Zanzibar's
president.
One week later they join electors in Tanganyika (mainland
Tanzania) in voting for a union president and the legislators who
will sit in the union parliament in Dar es Salaam.
Zanzibar merged with Tanganyika to form the United Republic of
Tanzania in April 1964, three months after the archipelago's last
Arab oligarchy was toppled in a revolution. However, whether the
union will continue under its present form will depend largely on
the outcome of the two elections.
"Whoever emerges as the winner, the union issue will be a hot
one," predicts Abdulrahamani Babu, a Zanzibari and a former
planning minister in the union government.
The presidential race is between two candidates, one each from
the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the Civic United Front
(CUF).
While neither the incumbent, Salim Amor of the CCM, Tanzania's
ruling party, nor his rival, the CUF's Seid Shariff Hamad, has
advocated the dissolution of the union, there are doubts in
Zanzibar as to its benefits. Under the present system, defense,
internal affairs and foreign affairs fall under the union
government while Zanzibar's administration is self-governing in
other areas.
Many Zanzibaris would like to see the union watered down and
long for the days when their archipelago was a sovereign nation,
with a buoyant economy, its per capita income matched in
sub-Saharan Africa only by Ghana and South Africa. At the time,
cloves, Zanzibar's main export, benefitted from high world market
prices.
Now, however, the territory shares the ills of its union
partner: a troubled economy, a large public debt, lack of trained
manpower and an overweight bureaucracy.
There have been fears that if the CUF's Hamad wins, the union
is likely to break up, although he himself has maintained that
"whoever wins the elections, Zanzibar has to maintain the union."
A more evident threat to the cohesion of Tanzania is posed on
the mainland where there is a growing movement of Tanganyikan
nationalism.
In late 1993, a group of 55 parliamentarians successfully moved
to establish an administration in Tanganyika that would govern the
mainland separately from Zanzibar. However, due to the intervention
of ex-president Julius Nyerere, the measure's implementation was
delayed pending wider consultation in the ruling CCM.
More recently, there has been an upsurge of separatist sentiment
on the mainland, with one of its most extreme exponents being the
unregistered Democratic Party led by Rev. Christopher Mtikila.
Mtikila, described here as a Christian fundamentalist, has
repeatedly launched verbal attacks against Islam, the religion of
95 per cent of Zanzibaris. (Tanganyika's 29 million people are
evenly divided between Christians, Muslims and followers of African
religions.)
And the Democratic Party leader has openly campaigned for the
separation of Zanzibar and Tanganyika.
On the other hand, the union has a strong advocate in
73-year-old Nyerere, who ruled Tanzania for a quarter of a century
until he resigned in 1985.
He recently held private talks with the CUF's Hamad in Dar es
Salaam, a move many here interpreted as aimed at seeking guarantees
that the union would be maintained.
Copyright 1995 IPS/GIN. The contents of this story can not be duplicated in any fashion without written permission of Global Information Network
Chintowa, Paul,
Ruling party ends Zanzibar campaign
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (Reuter)Oct.21 - After 30 years in sole command, Tanzania' s
ruling party ended its first real electoral campaign Saturday with a rousing
eve-of-poll rally in Zanzibar.
About 25,000 well-marshalled supporters thronged a central park in ancient
Zanzibar Town before they are to vote Sunday for the Indian Ocean islands' own
president and legislature.
The poll will give the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM, Revolutionary Party) a hint of
what to expect in the Tanzanian union's first multi- party elections on Oct. 29.
"Vote for CCM so we can accomplish the job that we started," Salmin Amour,
Zanzibar's incumbent president, told the crowd.
The CCM and its predecessor have never faced an opposition challenge before
for presidency or parliament since 1964 when mainland Tanganyika and Zanzibar
were joined in an often strained political marriage.
The opposition, led by the Civic United Front (CUF) in Zanzibar, says that after
31 years of CCM rule Tanzania remains one of the world's 10 poorest countries.
But the final CUF rally Saturday attracted only one third of Amour' s turnout.
The wealth gap between the two parties was striking with CCM supporters
bussed to the meeting bedecked with green flags, caps and T-shirts while CUF
made do with hand-made propaganda.
The CCM's exclusive hold on power will end Sunday when Zanzibar' s 350,000
registered voters follow most of Africa and discover the new world of
multi-party polls, electing their president and 50 island legislators. Results
are expected on Monday and Tuesday.
One week later the mainland's 12 million voters plus the islanders will vote for
the union presidency and parliament.
In Zanzibar, dominated by the islands of Unguja and Pemba, the threat to CCM
comes from the CUF's presidential candidate, Seif Shariff Hamad.
"The CUF is very strong on Pemba but not so strong on Unguja so it will be
close," a Western diplomat, one of 142 U.N.-organized foreign electoral
observers in Zanzibar, told Reuters.
"Just take a glance at the last 31 years. Nothing has improved and everything is
getting worse," Hamad told his supporters Saturday, picking on health and
education.
Speaking in the national language of Swahili, Hamad said Zanzibari hospitals
were so clean under British colonial rule that patients could safely sleep in the
lavatory.
But today they were so dirty that if you were admitted for malaria you were
discharged with head-lice, Hamad said.
Despite the rhetoric and some incidents, campaigning throughout Tanzania has
been generally good-natured.
"After the elections, whatever the candidates may have said, we will still have
to live together," said one Zanzibari returning home by hydrofoil from the
mainland Saturday.
CUF is stressing Zanzibari nationalism but is not advocating secession from the
rest of Tanzania. The islands have a large degree of self- government but also
vote in the union elections.
CUF wants a de facto federal arrangement with a three-government system,
adding one for the mainland to the present set-up, effectively to diminish the
powers of the central authority.
This idea is rejected by the CCM which, on the mainland, faces its sternest
threat from Augustine Mrema's NCCR-Mageuzi.
Many on the mainland, where 95 percent of Tanzania's nearly 30 million people
live, express impatience with Zanzibar's claims to even greater autonomy.
REUTER
Copyright 1995 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved. The above news report may
not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior
written consent of Reuters Ltd.
Kotch, Nicholas, Tanzania's ruling party ends Zanzibar campaign., Reuters,
10-21-1995.
Stoic Zanzibaris voted peacefully
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (Reuter)Oct.22 - Stoic Zanzibaris voted peacefully in their first
multi-party elections Sunday, the dress rehearsal for Tanzania's entry into the
club of African nations that have dropped one-party rule.
Braving sporadic rain that became a tropical downpour and patiently tolerating
bureaucratic hiccups, the islanders queued for hours to elect their own
president and parliament.
In some of the 2,028 polling stations voting was extended beyond the 6 p.m.
deadline as electoral officials and voters came to grips with the new era of
multiple choice.
Since 1964, when Zanzibar was joined with mainland Tanganyika in the union of
Tanzania, one party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), has ruled the roost.
That monopoly will end Monday or Tuesday in Zanzibar, when official results are
announced, and in Tanzania as a whole after separate elections Oct. 29.
By the end of voting there were no reports of violence or serious incidents on
Unguja, Zanzibar's main island. The picture on Pemba was unclear due to
atrocious telecommunications and electricity supplies on the Indian Ocean
islands.
"Things are going very smoothly as you have seen. In a few places voting
started late because the political parties have lots of questions, " Aboud Tahib,
director of elections at the Zanzibar Electoral Commission, told Reuters early
Sunday.
The battle in Zanzibar was between the CCM's incumbent president, Salmin
Amour, and the head of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF), Seif Shariff
Hamad.
Both parties predicted victory, although the CCM faithful appeared to do so
with greater conviction. More pertinently, the two rivals have publicly agreed
to accept the verdict of the ballot box without protest.
Most voters were unconcerned by the important fine print of the new
multi-party world they were entering. For instance, although the new island
parliament will have 75 members, only 50 will have been elected. Others are
nominated or appointed by the new president and 10 women will be added
according to party strengths in the election.
This means that the president's party will inevitably control parliament.
Zanzibar will also be grossly over-represented in the new union parliament
since with only three percent of Tanzania's 29 million population it will return
50 members, or more than 20 percent of the house.
This anomaly was an irrelevance in one-party days but seems likely to be
challenged in future.
CUF has clear appeal to voters wanting change after 31 years of CCM rule that
have failed to lift Tanzania out of the 10 poorest countries in the world.
Copyright 1995 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved. The above news report may
not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior
written consent of Reuters Ltd.
Kotch, Nicholas, Zanzibaris ignore rain, snags, for first free vote., Reuters,
10-22-1995.
Tanzania's ruling party headed for victory Tuesday
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (Reuter)Oct.23 - Tanzania's ruling party headed for victory
Tuesday in the first multiparty elections in the Indian Ocean islands of Zanzibar
after three decades of one-party rule.
African observers pronounced the elections free and fair as Chama Cha
Mapinduzi (CCM) led with more than half the parliamentary results declared.
More crucially CCM's Salmin Amour was ahead in the two-horse race for
Zanzibar's presidency.
Sunday's elections were an important dress rehearsal for CCM's bid to retain
power in Tanzania as a whole Oct. 29. Zanzibar was joined with mainland
Tanganyika in the new union of Tanzania in 1964 and one-party rule was
installed a few months later.
An observer group sent by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) praised
Zanzibar's 350,000 voters for their "outstanding maturity, sense of
responsibility and seriousness of purpose even in the face of isolated logistical
problems."
"The group is satisfied that the elections were conducted in a free and
transparent manner ... in this crucial process of transition from a single party
system to a pluralistic multi-party democracy, " the group said in a statement
late on Monday.
Because of the painfully slow pace of announcing official results, the final
outcome was still in doubt more than 30 hours after the end of polling.
But all the signs pointed to a CCM victory against the opposition Civic United
Front (CUF).
The CUF was trailing CCM 17-9 late Monday for the House of Representatives,
which has 50 elected members. The opposition was still banking on winning all
21 seats in its stronghold on Pemba island.
CCM was far ahead on the main island of Unguja, which has twice as many voters
as Pemba.
Election analysts said this would ensure the safe return of Amour to the islands'
presidency with the power to control the House of Representatives by dint of
the 16 extra members he may nominate and appoint.
"It looks very like CCM are going to win," a senior member of the 142-strong
group of foreign observers told Reuters.
The opposition was unready to concede defeat Monday night but the mood at
CUF headquarters in a winding alley in Zanzibar Town was sombre.
"It seems we have suffered a tremendous defeat on (Unguja)," Hassan Khatib, a
CUF leader, told Reuters.
"The advantage of the CCM is that they have full control of the government
machinery, including the intelligence officials," he added.
CCM's No. 2, Ali Ameir, said he was surprised at CUF's strength on Pemba.
"But we will get a good majority of votes on Unguja and a fair number in Pemba
so we should win the presidency," he said.
Apart from claims by CUF of irregularities during some counts and unfair voter
registration rules, the elections have been held without serious incident.
When CCM supporters angered the opposition by prematurely celebrating
victory Monday, they quickly disappeared from the streets.
Many Zanzibaris said memories were still vivid of the butchery in 1964 in the
aftermath of the islands' last multiparty elections. The violence ended with the
demise of centuries of Omani Arab rule but at least 5,000 Arabs and Indian
merchants were killed.
"Everyone was nervous before these elections because of what happened in
1964," said one government worker.
Many in Zanzibar's small Indian community took no chances this time, sending
dependants out of the islands and boarding up their shops.
REUTER
Copyright 1995 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved. The above news report may
not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior
written consent of Reuters Ltd.
Kotch, Nicholas, Ruling party heads for victory in Zanzibar., Reuters,
10-23-1995.
TANZANIA-POLITICS: ZANZIBAR CONTROVERSY
THREATENS UNION POLLS
DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA, Oct. 25 (IPS) -- Elections scheduled
for Oct. 29 in Tanzania hang in the balance following controversy
over the Oct. 22 polls in Zanzibar.
Augustin Mrema, the main opposition candidate in Tanzania's
presidential polls, today threatened to boycott the Oct. 29
elections unless the demands of Zanzibar's opposition Civic United
Front (CUF) for a recount of the votes cast on Oct. 22 were met.
The archipelago of Zanzibar and Tanganyika, located on the East
African mainland, form the union of Tanzania. Zanzibaris turned out
en masse on Oct. 22 to elect members of a 50-seat house of assembly
and the president of the self-governing archipelago.
But the CUF has demanded a recount of the votes cast in the
presidential elections and access to the voters' lists of all 50
constituencies.
"My party will not endorse the presidential election results if
our demands are ignored," said presidential candidate Seif Shariff
Hamad, CUF's vice-chairman.
"CUF members who won seats in the house of representatives will
stage civil disobedience if the election results are announced
unilaterally giving the CCM (Chama Cha Mapinduzi) victory," he
said.
According to preliminary results, the CUF won 23 of the 50 seats
in the parliamentary elections, while the CCM, which is also the
ruling party on the mainland, obtained 25. Up to today,
international observers were helping local polling officials to
recount the ballots in two constituencies.
The last partial result of the presidential election was
announced yesterday. It gave the CCM candidate Salman Amour 48,000
votes to Hamad's 45,000. There were 350,000 registered voters.
But after the CUF called for a recount, CCM officials in
Zanzibar also claimed there had been irregularities. "Some polling
stations had opened late while there was more voters in the
elections than those registered," said CCM official Juma Ameir.
But, unlike the CUF, the CCM wants the elections annulled and
new ones held. A senior CCM official said today on Radio Zanzibar
that the party felt the results of the elections should not be
announced because of the irregularities.
All this has led to speculation that the opposition candidate
may have won the presidential race.
The confusion over the Zanzibari election has spilled over into
mainland Tanzania, with Mrema threatening to pull out of the Oct.
29 polls in which Tanganyikans and Zanzibaris are to elect a
president of the Tanzanian union.
Mrema, candidate of the National Convention for Constitutional
Reform (NCCR-Maguezi), said today that if the CCM refused to accept
defeat in Zanzibar, it would do the same come Oct. 29.
He said the voters' lists for the Oct. 29 elections should be
made known before the polls and that every ballot paper should be
signed so as to minimize the risk of irregularities.
Whatever the doubts about the Oct. 22 elections, they served to
highlight the internal division in Zanzibar, most of whose 750,000
people live on two main islands, Unguja and the smaller Pemba.
According to the preliminary results announced yesterday, the
CUF made a clean sweep of the 21 seats in Pemba, Hamad's home
island.
Relations between Pemba and Unguja have been tense ever since
the last Arab sultan to have ruled the islands was deposed in a
1964 uprising in Unguja, which most Pembans did not support.
Pembans have constantly complained of having less than their
fair share of political power in the archipelago: all five
presidents who have ruled Zanzibar since 1964 have been from Unguja
and very few Pembans have held ministerial posts in successive
Zanzibari governments..
Copyright 1995 IPS/GIN. The contents of this story can not be duplicated in any fashion without written permission of Global Information Network
Chintowa, Paul, TANZANIA-POLITICS: ZANZIBAR CONTROVERSY THREATENS UNION POLLS.,
Inter Press Service English News Wire, 10-26-1995.
Ruling party heads for victory in Zanzibar
ZANZIBAR-POLITICS: OPPOSITION QUERIES CCM
PRESIDENTIAL VICTORY
DAR ES SALAAM, Oct. 26 (IPS) -- Zanzibar's main opposition party
has rejected the result of a presidential election held on Oct. 22
in the Indian Ocean archipelago, won by Salman Amour of the ruling
Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
The Zanzibari Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced today that
53-year-old Amour, the incumbent, won by a narrow margin, polling
165,271 votes to 163,706 for Seif Shariff Hamad of the Civic United
Front (CUF).
However, the CUF said it would not accept the result. It charged
that the four-day delay in completing the tally reinforced its
belief that it had been doctored and reiterated earlier demands for
a recount.
"I am sure the election has been rigged," CUF Secretary-General
Shaaban Mloo said today. "We are not going to endorse the results.
We want fresh elections."
"We don't trust the commission," added Mloo.
Yesterday, the CCM had called for the election to be annulled,
charging that there had been irregularities, but after the
announcement of the result, party officials said they were happy
with it and accepted it.
Commission director Aboud Talib said the whole election process
was "free and fair" and that "the delay was caused by heavy rains
and late voting."
Adding that the commission had come under attack from both
parties, he stressed that the elections were held without favor or
malice. "We in the commission are satisfied with the results and
we don't accept the blame," he said.
The dispute could lead to unrest in Zanzibar since the CUF today
reiterated an earlier threat to launch a campaign of civil
disobedience if the ZEC refused its call for a recount. CUF leaders
told journalists today that they would ignore any government that
emerges from the election because it would be illegal.
Ninety-five per cent of the 348,934 registered voters in the
archipelago turned out at the presidential and parliamentary polls
held on Oct. 22, in which the CUF won 24 seats in the islands'
house of assembly, while the CCM obtained the remaining 26.
Zanzibar, which is self-governing, united with mainland
Tanganyika to form the United Republic of Tanzania in April 1964,
three months after the archipelago's last Arab sultan was toppled
in a revolution.
Zanzibaris are expected to vote again on Oct. 29, along with the
people of Tanganyika for a new Tanzanian president and members of
the union parliament.
However, says Khamis Jecha, a Zanzibari resident here, "if the
two sides disagree on the results, then many people in the islands
especially in Pemba, will not take part in the elections."
The CUF won all 21 parliamentary seats in Pemba, the smaller of
the two main islands in the archipelago, while the CCM obtained 26
of the 29 seats on the larger island, Unguja.
"If Salmin wants peace, then he should form a government of
national unity," said Ayoub Seif Khatib, a shop owner from Pemba
who lives the Tanzanian capital.
This would be a marked departure from past practice. Few people
from Pemba have been included in successive Zanzibari governments
since 1964.
Copyright 1995 IPS/GIN. The contents of this story can not be duplicated in any fashion without written permission of Global Information Network
Chintowa, Paul, ZANZIBAR-POLITICS: OPPOSITION QUERIES CCM PRESIDENTIAL VICTORY.,
Inter Press Service English News Wire, 10-27-1995.
The letters about Zanzibar & Tanzania election
- E-mail from whom knows Zanzibar condition well.Oct.29.'95
- E-mail from Tanzanian overseas Oct.30.'95
- E-mail from Anonymous Oct.31-Nov.3
- E-mail from Tanzanian overseas Nov.16.'95
- E-mail from Tanzanian overseas Nov.19.'95
- E-mail from Anonymous Nov.25
- E-mail from Anonymous Nov.26
- E-mail from Anonymous Dec.22
- E-mail from Anonymous Jan.16,1996
- E-mail from Anonymous Jan.29,1996
- E-mail from Anonymous Feb.1,1996(in Swahili)
- E-mail from Anonymous Feb.2,1996
- E-mail from Anonymous Feb.9,1996
Zanzibar election Diary Oct.19-27,1995
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