by Bayano Valy in Dar es Salaam – SANF 05 no 87
With less than a week before the 30 October Tanzanian general elections, the country’s election commission says that almost everything is in place for holding of a successful poll.
Voters will elect the president of the United Republic of Tanzania, the parliamentarians and local councillors.
In addition, the electorate on the islands of Zanzibar will also vote for their own president, parliamentary representatives and local councillors.
The United Republic of Tanzania was formalised in 1964 as a Union of two independent states – Tanganyika (independence 9 December 1961) and Zanzibar (independence 10 December 1963). Zanzibar has its own president, with no jurisdiction over the mainland.
There will be 47,000 polling stations deployed throughout the 25 regions of the United Republic Tanzania. More than 15 million Tanzanians are eligible to vote for the Union president and members of the Bunge (National Assembly).
The new Bunge will have 324 legislators of which 232 will be constituency representatives, 75 for women’s special seats, 10 Union presidential nominees, 5 from the Zanzibar House of Representatives. There are two other nominees of whom one is for the Attorney-General.
The Bunge had 295 members in the 2000 elections. The increase is due a constitutional provision that allows for change of number of seats.
Some 13 parties are contesting in the current elections but only the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), opposition Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendelo (CHADEMA) and the Civic United Front (CUF) are likely to return members.
There are eight presidential candidates. However, only CCM’s candidate Jakaya Kikwete stands a strong chance of succeeding President Benjamin Mkapa. Kikwete has served government for 17 years, 10 of them as Foreign Affairs Minister.
His main challengers are Ibrahim Lipumba of CUF and Freeman Mbowe of CHADEMA.
For the local government, Tanzanians will vote for 2,552 wards (councillors). A third of these are women, according to Stella Mugasha of the National Election Commission (NEC).
Mugasha told SANF that by 23 October, NEC had received application for 128 observers, but the figure is likely to increase.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Election Observation Mission (SEOM), the region’s main observer team, is said to be sending a 50-member team. Other observers will come from the SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF), the region’s Electoral Commission’s Forum (ECF), the African Union and the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA).
There are local observer groups such as the Ecumenical Observer Mission, and the Tanzania Electoral Monitoring Commission. The European Union is also expected to field its own observers.
Tanzania has taken great strides towards meeting provisions of the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. For example, it has a permanent voters roll, which is open to public scrutiny.
By law, voters have 14 days to scrutinise the voters roll, and they also have a further 14 days to appeal in case of any discrepancies.
Although one can more easily be considered a resident of the mainland, in Zanzibar a person has to reside for at least three years to be considered eligible for voting. So there were instances where people were disfranchised because they had not lived enough years on the islands.
Zanzibaris apply this law so fiercely that even the Union ambassador to Brussels, a younger brother of the islands’ president, has not been allowed to register by virtue of him not having resided in Zanzibar for the requisite number of years.
But a change has been enacted allowing for those who do not qualify as residents to vote for the Union President. This year the number of such people is said to be 15,000. These include personnel of the Union Police and telecommunications staff, among others. In some places these would be considered “external voters”.
The SADC electoral guidelines are a non-legally binding electoral tool that was signed by the Heads of State and Government at the regional body’s summit in Mauritius, in 2004.
Subsequent to its signing, elections have taken place in five countries, namely Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Mauritius.
Only Zimbabwe and Mauritius which held elections this year, had sufficient time to align their electoral legislation to the principles.
Thus Tanzania becomes the third country where the regional instrument for assessing democratic elections can be further implemented. (SARDC)
