Voters in Tanzania’s offshore state of Zanzibar go to the polls on Sunday for hotly contested elections amid fears of violence on the politically volatile islands.
As well as deciding whether Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume keeps his job or is replaced by his chief opponent, Seif Sharif Hamad — four other candidates are no-hopers — Zanzibar’s voters will also choose their local lawmakers and council members in Sunday’s election.
In the run-up to this election, nearly 200 people have been wounded and several believed to have been killed in clashes between the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), or Revolutionary Party, and Civic United Front (CUF) supporters on Zanzibar’s two main islands of Unguja and Pemba.
The polls are taking place despite the postponement of elections in mainland Tanzania after the death of an opposition candidate, a move that had sparked confusion in Zanzibar.
After considering whether to follow the lead of their mainland counterparts and delay the polls until December 18, Zanzibari officials decided to go ahead with Sunday’s elections.
About 35 000 police and soldiers were deployed and emergency workers prepared for a possible repeat of deadly clashes that erupted after the last polls in 1995 and 2000.
About 507 000 voters were eligible to cast their ballots after polling stations open on Sunday at 7am local time. They close at 5pm, but results are not expected before the middle of next week, according to the electoral panel.
Rallies for Karume’s CCM and Hamad’s CUF each attracted about 10 000 people on Saturday ahead of the showdown on the semi-autonomous Indian Ocean archipelago.
A sea of green and yellow, the CCM colours, flooded a parade ground just north of Stone Town, Zanzibar’s capital, where the party distributed caps, T-shirts and cotton wraps bearing slogans such as ”Revolution forever” and ”A better life for all Tanzanians”.
Several kilometres away, a similar wave of blue, white and red greeted CUF leaders as they appealed for votes in the election that Hamad has confidently predicted he will win.
The CCM, which has dominated politics on the Tanzanian mainland since independence in 1961, is facing a serious challenge on overwhelmingly Muslim Zanzibar, a CUF stronghold, where distrust of non-islanders runs high.
The tussle has sparked fears of greater unrest amid opposition allegations of ruling-party malfeasance.
The CUF claims the CCM stole two earlier elections and Hamad has vowed mass street protests and a Ukraine-style revolution if Sunday’s polls are rigged.
At least 30 people were killed and scores injured when police opened fire to quell opposition riots after the 2000 polls, which attracted partial reruns. This year’s polls will be monitored by about 250 electoral observers.
The potential for a repeat of the violence is deemed to be high by donor nations, observers and medical personnel on the islands, who on Friday were busy stockpiling equipment and finalising contingency plans for unrest.
Along with other groups, the International Committee of the Red Cross helped coordinate a crisis plan that will be able to handle up several hundred casualties in the coming days on Unguja and Pemba.
Analysts have warned that a repeat of the 2000 violence will fatally wound the islands’ reputation as a tourist haven and blot Tanzania’s efforts to improve its economy.
Karume is seeking a second five-year term against Hamad, who lost both the 1995 and 2000 elections.
The Zanzibar archipelago, comprising the islands of Pemba and Unguja (or Zanzibar), enjoy semi-autonomous status with its own president, Parliament and powers. — Sapa-AFP