Tanzania’s ruling party loses over 50 seats as early results trickle out

The ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi has confirmed to have lost a total of 51 constituencies across the country as final results expected on Friday.

This means that opposition, which in the last parliament had few members, is gaining ground. In the last parliament, which had 232 elected MP, CCM had 206 seats with opposition having combined paltry 20 seats.

The CCM Presidential Campaign Manager, Mr Abdulahman Kinana said yesterday that so far the party has already lost at least 29 constituencies in Tanzania Mainland and 22 in Zanzibar.

But, Mr Kinana said the party was predicting to win 78.4 per cent of presidential votes in this year’s General Elections as well as 87 parliamentary seats in the Mainland and 56 per cent in Zanzibar.

Mr Kinana also predicted a 78.4 per cent presidential win for CCM, down from 80.2 per cent that it candidate, Jakaya Kikwete, obtained in 2005. During campaigns, CCM maintained that it was going to beat the 2005 victory record.

The campaign manager said CCM would suffer the blow due to rifts caused by the preferential polls conducted in July and August this year ahead of nomination of candidates.

“CCM agrees with the results (which are coming out) and we expect that we are going to win this election although we have already lost 51 constituencies,” said Mr Kinana.

The preferential polls were the source of misunderstandings, mistrust and division within the ruling party, Mr Kinana said noting that the party had no proper mechanism to deal with the situation.

He noted that the party was still suffering from the problems created during the primary polls as there were some members who had lost but have not disbanded their camps to date.

He said the ruling party went to the poll believing that it was going to win 87 percent of the parliamentary seats.

The ruling party has also taken a dent in Zanzibar where its victory is pegged at 56 per cent. It has lost all House of Representative seats in Pemba and four seats in Unguja. This is a blow to CCM as for years it has only been losing Mji Mkongwe in Unguja.

Mr Kinana said while opposition has managed to dislodge CCM in some of the constituencies, the ruling party has also managed to displace opposition in some of the constituencies.

Some of constituencies which opposition has defeated CCM include Ilemela and Nyamagana in Mwanza City, Ukerewe, Iringa Urban, Mbeya Urban, Ubungo, Kawe, Musoma Urban, Karagwem Kigoma South, Vunjo and Muhambwe while CCM had managed to retake Tarime from the opposition.

According to Mr Kinana, the CCM victory predictions were based on survey and opinion polls.

“The victory predictions I have told you are just CCM’s and not NEC stand. We should wait for the final results announced by NEC,” cautioned Mr Kinana.

However, Mr Kinana said the party’s preliminary polls which were used to pick its candidates to run for various positions has contributed much to the party’s poor performances in some areas.

Still not happy

“Until elections, in some areas our members were still not happy at the opinion polls results, this has contributed much to the lack of cooperation among candidates and other members,” said Mr Kinana.

He said the first CCM National Executive Committee would discuss the just ended election by identify the challenges, problems and coming up with strategies to deal with them.

“CCM is basically planning to discuss in detail the whole election process. Members will discuss about the opinion polls, the way campaigns were conducted and the results,” said Mr Kinana. Commenting on the delay of election results in some areas, Mr Kinana said CCM was also concerned over the issue.

He said they have been wondering why results have been delayed in some areas while NEC has no equipment, including computers and experts, and the tallying and filing of records have been computerised.

Chaos reigned on Monday in several areas of the country after the impatient youth protested the delay in announcing the election results by NEC officials and causing police to intervene by using teargas and fire in the air to scare off wananchi.

Commenting on the poor CCM’s performance in urban areas, Mr Kinana said the opposition parties have realised that as a base for wining elections and had decided to also seek votes from rural areas.

“But I think they did not do very good, they went in rural areas while time was already out… they had concentrated in urban areas,” he said.