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ZANZIBAR
ELECTION CHAOS MARS OTHERWISE SMOOTH TANZANIA POLL Updated: 30 October 2000
by Webmaster AND
Editorial
DAR es SALAAM, 30 October Tanzanians went to bed last night
confident that their second multi-party election had gone smoothly, only to awaken this
morning to find the Zanzibar Islands in what Commonwealth observers called a
"shambles".
Violence has broken out, supporters of the
opposition Civic United Front (CUF) are demonstrating in the streets, police and soldiers
have reportedly fired into the air to disperse demonstrators in CUF strongholds and the
election appears to be in doubt.
Zanzibar's 446,759 voters went to vote Sunday morning, only to find many polling stations
closed and without election materials. At least 16 polls in two regions could not open at
all and have been nullified. Many other polling stations did not open until mid-afternoon
in what Commonwealth observers called either "massive incompetence" or a
"deliberate attempt to wreck part of this
election."
The opposition has demanded that the entire election be declared null and void and an
entirely new election for president, House of Representatives and local councilors be
re-run.
The Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) is blamed by politicians and voters alike and the
Commonwealth observer mission headed by Dr. Gaositwe Chiepe of Botswana seems to agree.
"On the evidence of polling day the elections should be held again, in their
entirety. But, first the existing election management machinery must be reformed from
top-to-bottom."
The virtual collapse of the Zanzibar election has also had some fallout on the much larger
mainland election which yesterday was declared to be smooth and non-violent. Because of
the confusion in Zanzibar which also participates in
the Tanzania presidential election and elects 50 MPs to the Union parliament, the National
Electoral Commission which runs the presidential, parliamentary and local elections,
has had to delay announcing its results..
Eye-witnesses in Zanzibar report that streets were calm yesterday until the election
irregularities became obvious but it was only late last night and this morning when ZEC
officials failed to appear to announce what had caused the disruptions that opposition
leader Seif Sharrif Hamad called for nullification of the poll due to the massive
irregularities. He noted that even his opponent Amani Abeid Karume, leader of the ruling
Chama Cha Mapundizi (CCM) party had
been forced to wait more than an hour to vote due to shortages of election materials.
The absence of any comment from the ZEC or NEC has exacerbated the tension on the islands
and about noon reports of fighting between police, soldiers and CUF supporters in
predominantly CUF areas of began to come in with reports of
several injuries.
The Commonwealth mission has a special investment in Zanzibar's future. After the
controversial outcome of the 1995 election which resulted in similar violence blamed on
vote-rigging, Zanzibar became a donor pariah. The Commonwealth spent considerable energy
and diplomatic initiatives to draft an 11-point compromise agreement between the CCM,
under outgoing President Salmin Amour and CUF. It was never ratified although reluctantly
agreed to by CUF.
"We wish to record our sadness and deep disappointment at the way in which many
voters were treated by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission on voting day," the
Commonwealth's interim statement said. The mission has seven eminent Commonwealth citizens
and five support staff, all based in Zanzibar during the elections, some since Oct. 23.
Hinting that in addition to the poor electoral supervision by ZEC, there were other forces
at work, the Commonwealth said "we are aware that even more serious allegations have
been made" but said it must assess these before commenting.
The state-owned Daily News, in Dar es Salaam said, in scathing editorial, "it is not
enough for the ZEC to blame it all on Returning Officers. For it is
indeed true that all materials were delivered to the officers by Saturday, the problem
could be that the commission did not instruct the Returning Officers properly or that it
employed incompetent individuals"
The CCM on Zanzibar has also expressed its dissatisfaction with the ZEC. On the mainland,
the NEC hopes to be able to announce results late today or tomorrow. (SARDC)
This article can be reproduced with credit to SARDC and the author
Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC)
P O Box 5690, Harare Zimbabwe
Tel: (2634) 738694-6 Fax: 738693
Email: sardc@sardc.net
Website: www.sardc.net/sd/elections2000
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