As the election day nears and parties up their search for votes, Tanzania’s politicians have taken to social media in their campaigns, complementing the traditional posters, billboards, newspaper, radio and television ads.

Now all parties and their members are to be found wooing voters on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The Opposition has gone a step further and is said to be considering WhatsApp as a means of transmitting election results.

Sources within Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) say its agents have instructions to take pictures of the filled vote tallying forms and forward them to the party headquarters immediately after tallying at the polling stations.

Chadema spokesman Tumaini Makene  said his party will employ every technology at its disposal to detect, stop or otherwise curtail vote rigging.

Vote counting will be done at the polling stations on October 25, after which the results will be posted on public noticeboards outside the polling centres.

Agents are therefore expected to pick up this data and transmit it to party headquarters for independent tallying.

For the campaigns, CCM  is using a mailing list to persuade readers to  vote for its presidential candidates in Zanzibar and the Union Government.

READ: With a month to go, Tanzanian campaigns turn ugly

The party is also running  its campaigns through  a  Twitter (@ccm_Tanzania) and Instagram (ccmtanzania and Chama_Cha_Mapinduzi). 
Chadema has an Instagram account named “Chadema M4C,” and a Twitter account “Chadema Media” (@ChademaMedia). 

The party has numerous Facebook accounts, which include the group “Chadema in Blood,” and the blog “Furahia Maisha.”

WhatsApp is nonetheless proving controversial after unidentified  people created fake groups. For example, a message said to be from a group formed by CCM campaign team has been circulating on WhatsApp.

In the message, the group is discussing campaign strategies and “the need to influence poll research, which we have engineered and those from independent bodies.” However, the team was quick to deny being involved in that group.

In another case, former secretary general of  the East African Community, Juma Mwapachu, wrote to TCRA, complaining of a fake WhatsApp group formed in his name and used to spread political remarks in his name.

The law

The acting Head of Information at the National Electoral Commission, Clarence Nanyaro, said all parties agreed on election ethics that prohibit use of mobile phones inside the vote casting and counting room.

Even if they allowed the use of phones inside voting rooms, the Cybercrime Act prohibits anyone from sending or receiving what it terms “fabricated information.”

Section 7(2)(b) of the law holds a person guilty of receiving unauthorised information or computer data with or without intention of accessing the same.

 Section 31(1) of the Act confers powers onthe police for search and seizure of computer systems; and disclosure of data without a court order.

Also, Statistics Act 2013 outlaws issuance of any data which has not been verified by the National Bureau of Statistics. Part (V) Section 37 (4) of Statistics Act, imposes a fine of not less than Tsh10 million ($4,700), imprisonment for a term of not less than 24 months or both.

According to the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority, about 75 per cent of the estimated 48 million population have access to mobile phones.

TCRA estimates Tanzania has about nine million Internet users, thanks to the technological revolution fuelled by the fibre optic cable and substantial decline in the cost of using internet. 

All major mobile phone networks in Tanzania provide as much as 1GB of Internet use for $50 cents in special 24-hour offers.