Zanzibar’s main opposition party, the Civic United Front (CUF), has challenged the election result which gave victory to the ruling party and its presidential candidate, Amani Abeid Karume.

Karume won 53.2 percent of the vote for a second five-year term in office. He took 239,832 of the votes against 207,733 ballots for his main challenger, the CUF presidential candidate, Seif Shariff Hamad.

Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) secured 30 seats out of the 50 constituencies being contested, against CUF’s 19. Elections in one constituency have been postponed until 18 December along with the Union poll.

Zanzibar entered a Union with Tanganyika, as the mainland was then known, in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. The Zanzibar archipelago, comprising the two main islands of Unguja and Pemba, retains its own governance structure and electoral system in addition to the Union structures.

The pattern of votes shows a distinct division between the two islands where the opposition party swept all of the seats on the northern island of Pemba while CCM took almost all of the seats on Unguja.

As in the previous two polls, CUF claims the vote was rigged and that it will not recognise Karume’s government. “I’ll not accept these results,” said the CUF leader, Hamad.

He claimed quite wrongly that the regional and international observers who observed Sunday’s poll had found it wanting.

On the contrary, the statements used ranged from “free and fair” to “credible and legitimate” to “good elections”. These were the views of the observers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Commonwealth, among others, and they were unanimous in saying that the poll had been peaceful, professionally managed and transparent.

Hamad seemed to agree with these findings on the day of election when after casting his ballot he told journalists that the elections were being conducted smoothly and that if things remained as they were he would “accept the results even if I lose”.

CUF will meet on 5 November to issue a “strong position” on its future course of action, he said.

Omar Ramadhan Mapori, a senior CCM cadre, regarded Hamad’s comments as “just reactions to defeat.”

Mapori found it ironic that CUF did not challenge the outcome of the Stone Town constituency, its main stronghold in Unguja, where irregularities were detected. It is in Stone Town that CUF won its one seat on the island of Unguja.

As soon as the outcome was announced CCM supporters poured jubilantly out into the streets to celebrate despite the massive police and army presence deployed to forestall any repeat of the violence seen in the previous polls.

Despite CUF’s protestations Karume will be sworn in on Wednesday.

Analysts note that Hamad is likely to be pressured by his party to resign or face an internal revolt following a third consecutive defeat.

(SARDC)

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