Another week of frantic campaigns ended with a combination of tragedy and comedy. The drama was produced by the defection of one of the most recognisable faces in Tanzanian politics, Kingunge Ngombale-Mwiru, from the Chama cha Mapinduzi.

The veteran politician has been active in the higher echelons of the ruling party since the 1960s and has occupied several senior positions. He was considered that party’s ideology guru, serving under presidents Julius Nyerere, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Benjamin Mkapa and Jakaya Kikwete.

Explaining his move, Mr Kingunge cited dictatorial tendencies in the party’s decision-making processes, weakness of democratic and consultative structures and the opacity with which the party’s chairman, President Kikwete, is making major decisions.

Back in July, during CCM’s primaries, Mr Kingunge made his displeasure known after President Kikwete had seemed to dictate who among the more than 30 hopefuls would make it to the voting stage, and eliminated a number of prominent party members in favour of relative lightweights.

Among those eliminated in that process were President Kikwete’s own vice-president, his sitting prime minister, two former prime ministers, a retired Chief Justice and several senior ministers.

One of the former prime ministers thus eliminated was Edward Lowassa, who was the first major figure to announce he was quitting CCM and joining the opposition. He has since been on the campaign trail as the flag-bearer of the main opposition party — Chadema — and is supported by three main opposition parties united under the umbrella of the Alliance for a People’s Constitution (Ukawa).
Mr Lowassa’s defection is seen as presenting a credible challenge to CCM, mainly because of the support he has brought to the opposition from among the youthful, the urban-based and better educated voters. CCM is perceived as drawing its support from among the older stratum, the rural dwellers and the less educated.

However, as some observers have noted, the urban-rural divide may no longer be so stark during this year’s voting because that gap has been bridged by technology, especially mobile telephony, which has made communication instant and very personal.

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#An accountant in Dar es Salaam, Nat Madey, said: “It’s now very easy for the urban-dwelling citizen to communicate with his rural-based relatives and share perspectives regarding political trends in the urban communities, thereby influencing the way they will vote.”

In the last election, the opposition made significant gains, capturing majority seats in major towns, including Arusha, Mwanza, Mbeya, Iringa and significant parts of Dar es Salaam, apart from a few rural constituencies.

The addition of Mr Kingunge’s voice in support of the opposition and Mr Lowassa is not likely to do CCM any favours, although some of the party’s top leadership are trying to play it down.

CCM secretary-general Abdulrahman Kinana accused Mr Kingunge of double-speak over the fate of Mr Lowassa, saying, among other things, that when Mr Lowassa was eliminated from the electoral process in 1995, Mr Kingunge “was in agreement with that decision but finds himself at variance with this year’s decision, though the same yardstick was used then as now.”

Another CCM veteran, retired Justice Joseph Warioba, expressed his dismay at KinMr gunge’s decision, saying it was a “sign of weakness” on his part because “there is no way Mr Kingunge could distance himself from any of the major decisions made by our party.

A commentator in a local weekly blamed Mr Kingunge for the very ills the latter was complaining about in his party.

“Kingunge was the ideology chief of CCM but kept quiet when the party was being shorn of all its ideological substance, especially when it abandoned its leadership code, much had tamed the appetite for wealth among leaders,” said veteran Dar es Salaam based journalist Gideon Shoo.

“With the removal of those leadership taboos, the party ceased to belong to the workers and peasants of this country and became an instrument in the hands of those in positions of leadership and those with money.”

While the Kingunge episode was still inspiring heated commentary, tragedy struck when the leader of the Democratic Party, Christopher Mtikila, died in a road accident while travelling to Dar es Salaam. The late Mtikila, a self-styled “reverend,” was a maverick politician who devoted much of his time in court challenging laws he considered unconstitutional or against human rights.

A couple of his court cases were decided in his favour and attracted international attention. The government had to resort to extraordinary legislation to block the implementation of some of the orders given in his favour by the law courts, such as the decision to allow in independent candidates for elections at all levels, which remains unavailable.

At a ceremony led by President Kikwete, Mtikila was described as a “dogged fighter” even by those who disagreed with him fundamentally, such as Vice President Mohammed Gharib Bilal, a Zanzibari. Mtikila considered Zanzibar to be a “neighbouring country,” his only concern being for the wellbeing of Tanganyika and Tanganyikans.

He was given to making statements about the regions that made him stand out as a conspiracy theorist of mark, such as his oft-repeated “Hima Empire” conspiracy theory in which he accused a number of people of being involved in a vast plot to impose “Tutsi domination” in the Great Lakes region. Among those he accused was former president Julius Nyerere, whom he called a “Tutsi from Burundi.”

Back on the campaign trail, Mr Lowassa and Mr John Magufuli continued to draw huge crowds as they criss-crossed the country making all sorts of promises to the populace.

The presidential candidates and their running mates have been careful to associate their promises with the particularities of the areas they have been visiting. When in coastal areas where fisheries are of a special importance, they have been promising better and more modern fishing equipment.

When they are in particularly dry areas, they have promised improvement in water supply. In urban centres, they have been eager to appease self-employed “boda-boda” transporters, street hawkers and women who run makeshift food stalls and eateries.

For the ruling party candidate, Mr Magufuli, this exercise has been a little harder in the field because whenever he makes promises like these, it is easy for his critics to point out that those were the same pledges made in years past with little or nothing to show for that.

Mr Lowassa on the other hand, has had an easier task in the area of water supply as he has been able to point at what he did when he was water minister in launching a major project to pipe Lake Victoria water to Shinyanga, some 150 kilometres to the south, in a particularly arid area of central Tanzania.

Magufuli, for his part, has been able to showcase the achievements in road construction on his watch for the past 20 years during which he was deputy minister and then minister.

Citing numbers of road kilometres from place to place is a favourite Magufuli act, looking to show how he has made it possible to travel by road from Bukoba in the north-west to Mtwara in the southeast riding in a Toyota Corolla saloon car.

With all the intensity of the campaigns and the dramatic events that have accompanied them, there has been no shortage of comic relief to give people time to laugh and relax.

One such incident took place at a CCM campaign rally during which a district chairman in Kahama was exhorting the crowds to vote for the CCM parliamentary and civic candidates.

At the end of his address he reminded his listeners not to forget to vote for Lowassa as president, to the dismay of all his party’s leaders and faithful present.