(5 minutes)
· John Magufuli got re-elected as the president of Tanzania in a landslide victory at the just concluded presidential election
· There are allegations of widespread election fraud
· The ruling party also won an absolute majority in parliament.
John Magufuli got re-elected as the president of Tanzania in a landslide victory at the just concluded presidential election. At the same time, there are allegations of widespread election fraud. The ruling party also won an absolute majority in parliament.
Magufuli received 12.5 million votes. In absolute terms, it works out at 84% of the total votes polled. The top opposition candidate Tundu Lissu received 1.9 million, or 13%, The voter turnout was roughly 50%, with 14.8 million people voters against 29 million registered voters.
More convincing was the tally for the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party in the parliament election. It won 253 of the 261 constituencies announced so far. The ruling party registered win in several pockets considered to be the strong bastions of the opposition. The thumping majority of the ruling party, some analysts say, may lead to a referendum for extending the term of the president, which is presently limited to two terms. This trend is being noticed in a few other countries, where the term of office of the president is limited to two.
Lissu, the leader of the opposition party -CHADEMA -has rejected the vote while alleging “widespread irregularities”. He called for peaceful demonstrations. The opposition parties, which include ACT Wazalendo, assert that thousands of observers were turned away from polling stations, which have to be corroborated with evidence. They also claim that at least a dozen people were killed on the eve of the vote in the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar. Earlier, www.trendsnafrica.com had reported about tension in Zanzibar during the elections and internet services were disrupted or came to a grinding halt in many places. I
The electoral commission chair, Semistocles Kaijage, scotched these charges and asserted that all the votes were legitimate. People, who were supporting the incumbent president, have been celebrating the victory in the street. This time around, international election observers were also present to monitor the elections. John Magufuli has yet to comment upon his victory, which observers say he would do shortly.
Surprisingly, the United States has said that irregularities and the overwhelming margins of victory raise serious doubts about the credibility of the results announced. Some of the regional experts also opined that deployment of large numbers of military and policemen created fear among the ordinary electorates. Tanzania is one of the fast developing countries in Africa. Importantly, it is adjudged as a lower-middle-income country in terms of its growth parameters, which Magufuli leveraged to the hilt in the recent elections. There are concerns about post election violence, which the government sources said; it was well prepared to deal with.
