ELECTION CERTIFICATES
The Tanzania Election Monitoring Committee (TEMCO) issued in March two election certificates on the 2005 general election – a ‘clean, free and fair certificate’ for the elections on the mainland and a ‘qualified’ free and fair certificate for the Zanzibar elections. Extracts from the report, quoted in the Guardian:
‘On the mainland the voting, vote counting and declaration of results were carried out in consonance with the electoral law and regulations. The National Electoral Commission and most of its staff demonstrated a high degree of integrity, competency and an acceptable level of impartiality and accountability,”
In Zanzibar, where people ‘really mean politics’, the process was done with a lot of strain not only on the voting day but also during the whole electoral process that included registration, voters’ education, the campaigns, the voting itself, the counting of the votes and the announcement of the results. While on the mainland almost all the electoral processes were done democratically and peacefully, in Zanzibar registration, voting and counting of votes was done under strict security…. The opposition parties argued that the elections were not free and fair because the playing ground was not level.’
Wilfred Lwakatare from the Civic United Front (CUF), who stood for parliament in the Bukoba Urban Constituency, said that elections in Tanzania meant dealing with the police force and intelligence. In past elections there had been some irregularities including stealing of votes, which had been obvious, and the election observers had been used to justify the stealing.
The Director of Elections in the NCCR-Mageuzi, Mgeta Bakoma, said that the elections were not free and fair because people were threatened that if they voted for the opposition there would be problems in the country as had happened in Rwanda and Burundi.
COMPOSITION OF THE PARLIAMENTS
With the addition of special seats for women and other nominated MP’s the final composition of the 323-member National Assembly in Dodoma includes:
CCM: 206 elected plus 58 special seats for women plus up to 10 additional seats filled by presidential nomination of whom four have so far been nominated. Five more MP’s are elected by the Zanzibar House of Representatives. Plus the Attorney General and Speaker makes a total of 281
CUF: 19 elected (all from Zanzibar) plus 11 special seats for women plus 2 of the ten presidential nominees (from Pemba) = 32
CHADEMA: 5 elected plus 6 special seats for women = 11
TLP: 1
UDP: 1
The Assembly now has 97 women – 75 from the special seats group, 17 were elected in constituencies, 3 are Presidential appointees and there are 2 elected by the Zanzibar House of Representatives. Tanzania has therefore passed the SADC target of 30% women MP’s, the third African country to do so (the others being South Africa and Mozambique). In 2000, the percentage of women in the Assembly was only 21.5% or 63 in number.
The composition of the Zanzibar House of Representatives is as follows:
CCM 30 elected plus 4 special seats for women plus 10 nominated seats plus 5 regional commissioners plus the Attorney General.
CUF 19 plus 4 special seats for women
Undeclared 1 (by-election pending).
The local council elections
These were held at the same time as the presidential and parliamentary elections. The results were as follows:
No of wards won %age of total vote
CCM 2,375 93.6
CUF 57 2.23
CHADEMA 58 2.27
TLP 24 0.94
UDP 20 0.78
NCCR- Mageuzi 14 0.54
PPT Maendeleo 1 0.03
Other parties 0 0
Figures from a paper on ‘Gender Analysis of Political Leadership in Tanzania’ by Ms. Aggripina Mosha, Board Member of the ‘Tanzania Gender Networking Programme’ (TGNP) presented at a Workshop on ‘Parliamentarians for Women’s Health’ in Dar es Salaam.
PEMBANS LEAD OPPOSITION IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
The Civic United Front (CUF) is entitled, because it has more than 30 seats in the National Assembly, to appoint the leader of the opposition and promptly did so, on January 15. It also announced a 22-member CUF shadow cabinet.
The other opposition parties were not happy with this arrangement. John Cheyo, leader of the UDP, said it was unfair for the opposition in the Union Assembly, which mainly discusses matters concerning people on the mainland (population 32 million), to be officially recognised as ‘the opposition’ when it was largely composed of MP’s from the tiny island of Pemba (population half a million). It meant that there would be virtually no official spokespersons for the opposition from the mainland in parliament. According to Cheyo, efforts to convince CUF to rethink its decision had proved futile.
The Chairman of CHADEMA, Freeman Mbowe, was in Britain in early April at the invitation of the Conservative Party. He attended the Party’s annual conference in Manchester and subsequently made a speech in London and spoke to the press. He said that CHADEMA, following the experience it had gained in the nation wide campaign it had conducted during the 2005 elections (see TA No 83), would be better positioned for a major battle with CCM in the next elections in 2010. This was Mbowe’s second foreign trip since the general elections last year. He made a two-week visit to Norway and Germany in early February.
FORMER PRESIDENT MKAPA
The national CCM chairman, former President Benjamin Mkapa, has announced that he will relinquish this post one year before his term officially ends so that President Kikwete can fully supervise the implementation of the party’s election manifesto – Nipashe.
Attempts are being made to revamp the party’s Central Committee (CC) according to Rai. The Kikwete group was said to be focussing on 2015 when the President would finish two terms. The composition of the CC would be important then to ensure that the baton was passed to the ‘right person.’ For this it would be desirable to have more of Kikwete’s ministers inside the CC which is due for re-election next year. At present only eight ministers and three deputy ministers are CC members. The CC has 36 members, 17 of them from Zanzibar.
INSTRUCTIONS TO MP’S
The MPs have been told that it is a mistake to identify themselves as ‘Honourable’ especially on their ID cards but the title could be used by others when communicating with them.
The Chief of Protocol, Ambassador Cisco Mtiro, said also that if there was any need for them to speak to foreign diplomats then the diplomats should call on the MPs in their offices and not the other way round. “When you meet them, be careful about what you say. Don’t reveal ‘internal’ matters, especially with those diplomats who claim to be from the ‘citadel of democracy.’ ” He said experience had shown that some of these diplomats did not have good intentions towards the country. That was why former President Mkapa had had to put a stop to an official of the British High Commission who used to chase Zanzibar matters and ‘distort’ them. He also said that the US Ambassador had criticised the Zanzibar elections and had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry and had had to apologise. He warned them to take care while attending official functions locally or overseas by being discreet in their talk and behaviour. “Don’t imitate foreign culture by kissing while greeting, and don’t humiliate yourselves in their presence,” Mtiro advised the MPs – Tanzania Daima