Vote counting was under way on Monday after elections to choose a president and lawmakers in the popular tourist destination of Zanzibar were marred, like previous ballots, by violence and fraud.
Opposition presidential candidate Seif Shariff Hamad claimed a strong early lead against Amani Karume late on Sunday, the current leader of Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar, although no official early results had been published.
At least seven people were injured, two by bullets and five by machetes or sticks, according to a doctor in the capital of this semi-autonomous offshore state of Tanzania where both presidential and legislative elections were held on Sunday.
The doctor, who asked not to be named, said the bullets had been fired by the army.
Outside one polling station in the capital, Stone Town, security forces used live rounds and tear gas to disperse supporters of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) who were protesting against the presence of ineligible voters trucked in by the ruling Revolutionary Party (CCM).
No one was injured in this incident.
Rival groups of supporters clashed at several other places in Stone Town.
An Agence France Presse photographer said he had witnessed members of uniformed pro-government youth militia beating one opposition supporter “to a pulp”.
Relations are permanently strained between the CCM and CUF, with the opposition accusing the CCM of having stolen the last two elections, in 1995 and 2000.
More than 30 people were killed after the last elections and this year’s campaigns were marred by clashes with nearly 200 people wounded and several believed to have been killed.
Independent election observers at polling stations said they had also witnessed flagrant cases of voter fraud.
“They’re doing it in broad daylight, and couldn’t give a damn about us observers,” said one, asking not to be named.
He explained that he had seen people vote even though their names did not appear on the official register, something international journalists saw as well.
CUF presidential candidate Hamad claimed late on Sunday to be well ahead in the balloting in the semi-autonomous Indian Ocean archipelago.
According to figures compiled by the CUF, Hamad secured 61,3% of the votes gainst 37,6% for Karume, with 13% of votes counted. Half a million people were eligible to vote.
We are still confident that this trend will be maintained,” Hamad told an overnight press conference in the capital of the former British protectorate.
“I feel that still we are winning the elections despite… a lot of irregularities,” he added.
The official electoral commission had not yet published any early figures from the vote count. Full results are due by Wednesday.
Earlier Hamad said there had been “a lot of irregularities which make us very worried and make us fear that the elections will not be free and fair”.
He accused the CCM of trying to “cook the results” by taking results sheets from polling stations.
The CCM said such claims were the reaction of “a dying horse”.
Hamad has said that his supporters will take to the streets if his party does not emerge as the official winner of the polls.
Eight of Hamad’s political associates were arrested on Saturday night, accused of handling ballot papers, police said. Hamad denies the charge.
Separate elections for the president and Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania — made up of Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania — will be held in mid-December, later than scheduled because of the death of a vice-presidential candidate.
Enthusiasm for the Zanzibar elections was clear from early morning, when long queues formed outside polling stations with men and women forming separate lines. – AFP