US stops Tanzania aid over Zanzibar elections

Zanzibar's newly-elected President Ali Mohamed Shein (left) is sworn in by judge Omar Othman Makungu (right) at a ceremony in Stone Town, Zanzibar, on March 24, 2016. US has suspended Tanzania aid over Zanzibar poll. PHOTO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Millennium Challenge Corporation complained that Tanzania had gone forward with a flawed Zanzibar electoral process.
  • MCC board said Tanzanian authorities had failed to ensure that the country’s Cybercrimes Act “would not be used to limit freedom of expression and association.”
  • The US suspension-of-aid notification cites “arrests made during the elections” in Zanzibar.

NEW YORK, Tuesday

A US international development agency decided on Tuesday to suspend its partnership with Tanzania, saying the March 20 election in Zanzibar was “neither inclusive nor representative.”

The move by the board of directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) means that Tanzania will not be receiving an envisioned $472 million in funding for electricity projects.

In addition to complaining that Tanzania had gone forward with a flawed Zanzibar electoral process “despite the repeated concerns of the US government,” the MCC board said Tanzanian authorities had failed to ensure that the country’s Cybercrimes Act “would not be used to limit freedom of expression and association.”

The US suspension-of-aid notification cites “arrests made during the elections” in Zanzibar as an indication of the Tanzania government having “engaged in a pattern of actions inconsistent with MCC’s eligibility criteria.”

“MCC’s model has a partner country’s commitment to democracy and free and fair elections at its core,” the directors’ statement said. “The elections in Zanzibar and application of the Cybercrimes Act run counter to this commitment.”

Tanzania had previously been a favoured recipient of US development aid.

The country qualified in 2008 for nearly $700 million in US assistance for road, water and energy projects.

LARGEST FUNDING STREAM

That ranked at the time as the largest single funding stream approved by MCC, an agency that makes development aid contingent on countries’ compliance with a set of conditions involving human rights, governance and free-market economic policies.

Meanwhile, Tanzania’s National Identification Authority (Nida) has said it is finalizing legal arrangements to start using the National Electoral Commission (NEC) database for registration and issuing national IDs, adds the Citizen daily. The move revealed by newly appointed Nida acting director general Dr Modestus Kipilimba is a major turnaround by the agency that has for the past years opposed any move to have it work with NEC on national IDs.

Nida now says it will use NEC database with over 22 million voters to fast truck registration and issuance of new IDs.

The move has ended early tussle between the two agencies that scrambled for control of national database for Tanzanian citizens and billions of shillings were set aside for registration and issuance of the IDs.

“We are making some legal arrangement before we start using data from NEC,” he told The Citizen at his office.

Sources have told The Citizen that the agency was awaiting an executive order to start sharing data with NEC.