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misanet.com / SARDC, 31 October - Over 10 million Tanzanians were entitled to go the poll on Sunday, voting in their country's second multi-party elections. On the Tanganyika mainland, elections went orderly and smoothly, to President Mkapa's satisfaction, while several constituencies on Zanzibar island were marked by chaos. Tanzania second multi-party elections on 29 October 2000 began as a memorable day in the life of President Benjamin (Ben) William Mkapa. As the incumbent president, he is expected to increase his majority from the 61.8 percent he obtained at Tanzania's first multi-party elections in 1995 although constitutionally he now only needs to beat his nearest opponent and not score 50 percent plus one vote as he had to do in 1995. His ruling Chama Cha Mapunduzi (CCM) party won 186 of the 232 seats in those same elections with the remainder being shared between four minor parties. Over five years Mkapa has transformed Tanzania from one of the world's poorest nations to Africa success story in the eyes of international donors. Conspicuous poverty remains evident. But inflation had been cut from 32 percent to less than 6 percent, growth is put at five percent and tourism and mining are booming. Zanzibar's Salmin Amour had privately indicated that he might run for a third and unconstitutional term as the island's president. Mkapa skillfully blocked this plan. Even among his detractors, Mkapa's conspicuous integrity and such achievements are acknowledged. The main question, or so it seemed, was who would come second to Mkapa and CCM as Tanzania's quietly queued to vote on Sunday 29 October 2000. Along with his wife Anna, Mkapa had cast his ballot at Ubungo Primary School at 0700. He spoke briefly to the assembled media expressing optimism that the elections would be free and fair and he laughingly recalled that he had once also been a journalist. Then the Mkapa's headed off to church as they do early every Sunday. This time round he had a country as well as a campaign to run and after six gruelling weeks on the stomp around his almost one million square kilometer country he settled in to some business of state. The mood was optimistic. Early reports from "command posts" around the country indicated that unlike five years ago the poll was progressing well with few hiccups. Most of the 38,364 polling stations had opened on time, ballot papers had arrived and by 1600 local time most of the country's 10,017,266 registered voters would have cast their votes. Mkapa had made no secret of his anger with his opponents on the campaign trail. One had addressed two rallies in Sikuma, the ethnic dialict of the populous northwestern areas. Such behaviour under Tanzania's old one-party state rules would have led to the candidates' automatic disqualification for not speaking the national language, Swahili. In the same area of the country Mkapa had learned from his audience that another political party had said he had "privatised" Lake Victoria thereby threatening the future of fishermen. He had vigorously told his audience that this was not true. Why the National Electoral Commission (NEC) remained silent remains unexplained. But in certainly reinforces the argument that some of the old single-party rules should be reconsidered for incorporation into the new political order. Yet, and despite this, the mood remained optimistic. Tanzania, it seemed, was well on the way to casting off the shadow which has haunted it since 1995 when the NEC reduced the Dar es Salaam elections to a shambles forcing their re-run. Zanzibar As a result polling stations in these areas opened late and there was a shortage of electoral materials. Accusations and counter-accusations swiftly flew while the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) sought unsuccessfully to absolve itself of all blame. Optimism turned to frustration with Zanzibar. Even under British colonialism, Zanzibaris had never had violence free elections mainlanders noted. Now Zanzibaris were damaging mainland Tanzania's image. No doubt Mkapa shared the universal mainland anger over Zanzibar's conduct of the elections. His CCM party had been predicting that their candidate for the island's presidency, Amani Karume, son of the man who emerged as the leader in the wake of the 1964 revolution, would win. Equally confidently, the Civic United Front (CUF) candidate, Seif Shariff Hamad, had predicted he would win and he claimed yet again that he was cheated out of his 1995 victory over Amour. As a result, new elections will be held in about a weeks time in 16 Zanzibar constituencies and the swearing in of the new president of Tanzania (confidently tipped as being Mkapa again) will have to be postponed from next Saturday until the missing results are made public. Evenso, and despite these hiccups which some political observers admit were predictable in the case of Zanzibar, Tanzania's elections have gone off remarkably smoothly. On the northern Zanzibar island of Pemba which is a CUF stronghold, the elections were peaceful. On the mainland the elections have also gone off well with the results being pinned up outside each polling station after they are counted. Furthermore, despite the Zanzibar albatross coming home to roost, there is no denying that Mkapa is better known nationally than he was five years ago, that his reputation for integrity is intact in the eyes of his people and that he has made significant economic gains. When rationale views prevail, Mkapa will be judged more on his achievements in the next five years than by recent events in Zanzibar. This includes shedding CCM dinosaurs when party elections take place in two years time, expanding the beneficiaries of Tanzania's growing prosperity, continuing the fight against corruption and increasing social services. Finally, it includes ensuring that his successor further builds on the foundations that Mkapa is establishing. It is on the basis of issues like these that leaders are judged by their people and not electoral hiccups and the views expressed by opponents, observers and journalists. By David Martin, Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC)
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