Thousands of supporters of Tanzanian main opposition party, the Civic United Front (CUF), on Sunday protested in Dar es Salaam against last week’s barring of the party’s presidential aspirant in the country’s Zanzibar islands from registering for October elections.
Electoral authorities in Zanzibar on Thursday refused to register CUF secretary general Seif Said Hamad on the grounds that he has not lived on the island for the past three consecutive years, effectively nullifying his candidacy.
”The Zanzibar Electoral Commission [ZEC] has deliberately failed to maintain free and fair registration of Hamad and many other CUF supporters,” the party’s chairperson, Ibrahim Lipumba, told a rally at Jangwani grounds in Dar es Salaam.
Lipumba said about 32 000 CUF members have been barred from registering in Zanzibar — whose population is about a million — since the exercise started in March, amid ongoing violence between rival parties.
”This is a long-term plan implemented by the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi [Revolutionary Party] and its government to cling to power,” he said, warning that chaos is imminent.
He added that Hamad has lived in Zanzibar for many years and served there as minister and later chief minister when the country was under a one-party political system until the beginning of the 1990s.
”Hamad continues to receive retirement benefits as former chief minister. The benefits include a house in Zanzibar given to him by the government,” he said, adding that ”it is surprising that he is now no longer a Zanzibari”.
On Sunday, the ZEC suspended registration for two days to rectify unspecified ”irregularities”.
Hamad, who has vowed to appeal, will be making his third attempt for Zanzibar’s presidency. In 1995, he lost elections to Salmin Amour and then to current president Amani Abeid Karume in 2000. In both cases, he claimed the polls were rigged against him.
Tanzanians are scheduled to go to the polls for the country’s third general elections under multiparty politics on October 30, which includes mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. — Sapa-AFP