DAR ES SALAAM

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete was Friday declared the winner of the country's weekend elections, taking 61.17 percent of the votes, the electoral commission announced.

Kikwete's closest rival Wilbrod Slaa of the CHADEMA party won 26.34 percent and Ibrahim Lipumba of the Civic United Front came a distant third with 8.06 percent.

"I now declare Jakaya Kikwete to have been elected president of the United Republic of Tanzania," National Electoral Commission chairman Lewis Makame said.

Signs that Kikwete was cruising for another re-election appeared on when partial results showed he was leading in 192 out of 225 constituencies. Tanzania has 239 constituencies.

The National Election Commission website had showed the Tanzanian president well ahead in the poll with two thirds of the constituencies counted.

The results had been slow in coming, sparking protests in some Dar es Salaam districts and leading security forces to disperse angry crowds with tear gas.

Local and foreign observers, including European Union monitors, have voiced concerns over the transparency of the counting process in east Africa's second-biggest economy, while the opposition said the vote was marred by rigging.

Kikwete was seeking a second and final term at the helm of Tanzania, East Africa's second largest economy. Political analysts who talked to journalists had earlier dismissed any chance his challengers catching up adding he had already built up a comfortable lead.

Voters in Sunday's general elections held in the East African nation and its semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar also chose lawmakers and local leaders.

Last Wednesday, opposition leader Wilbrod Slaa demanded the electoral commission stop announcing presidential results, saying they were erroneous.

"The number of votes in our favour differs from those announced by the National Electoral Commission," said Slaa.

"We have asked NEC to stop announcing presidential results, investigate the discrepancies and order fresh counting and tally the figures with those of our agents," he told AFP.

The 62-year-old Slaa, who ran in Sunday's presidential election on the ticket of Chadema, the Swahili acronym for Democracy and Development Party, also said security agents had tampered with both the results and the number of votes cast.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Dar es Salaam, Dr Slaa alleged the security forces, including the police force, NEC and national security have been involved in fabricating election results in several areas of the country.

However, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) chairman, retired Judge Lewis Makame, dismissed the allegation, saying they could not act on rumours.

“If he has other data (as he claims) he should bring it to us and then we will act on the issue,” said Mr Makame.
“Where is his data showing that what we are announcing is different from what has been gathered from the polling stations” he asked.

Mr Makame said the commission verifies the results before announcing them to the public, adding that he could not say anything more until the commission receives complaints from the party.

Dr Slaa had also asked the NEC to call a fresh poll in the constituencies where there were problems "or the party would go to court."

The Chadema candidate accused the NEC of collaborating with members of the National Intelligence to “expertly steal opposition votes in several areas of the country”.

The party, he said, had evidence of the alleged involvement of the National Intelligences and NEC officials in fabricating election results in some constituencies.

“We cannot accept such results simply because the army, police and the NEC are trying to manipulate us to do so,” Dr Slaa claimed.

However, the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) declined to comment.
The head of the CCM elections department, Mr Mattson Chizi, said the party was only concentrating on the announcement of elections by the NEC.

“We have nothing to say about those allegations, as we are just waiting for all the results to be announced,” he said by telephone.

Dr Slaa also alleged that the CCM’s presidential candidate’s votes in some constituencies had been inflated and those of his opponents reduced.

He also alleged that illegal “polling stations” had been set up by NEC without the opposition parties’ knowledge.
The CUF campaign manager, Mr Said Miraji said they were preparing the statement which would be issued by the party’s chairman Mr Lipumba.

NEC’s director of Election, Mr Rajabu Kiravu, said their preliminary duty is to only verify the results and not to favour any aspirant.

“We only verify the results only and not offering favours to any party. We are here to correct mistakes and not otherwise,” said Mr Kiravu.

Meanwhile, Tanzania's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party is expressing confidence in winning both the presidential and parliamentary elections.

"We expect to lose about 51 parliamentary constituencies to the opposition, but we will still retain the majority of the 239 seats," CCM campaign manager Abdulrahman Kinana said  in Dar es Salaam.

"We acknowledge that the National Electoral Commission has the mandate to announce election results, but we can confirm that CCM are on course to comfortably winning the presidential and parliamentary elections," he said.

AFP and Citizen Team