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CUF vows to contest October poll outcome
2005-08-13 08:03:28
By Joyce Mkinga and Geoffrey Kimbunga (SAUT)
The Civic United Front (CUF) will contest the outcome of the forthcoming general election if the anomalies in the Zanzibar Permanent Voter Register (PVR) will not be corrected.
CUF National chairman, Ibrahim Lipumba told reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday that his party would not accept results for both the Union and the Zanzibar presidential elections, unless the anomalies were corrected.
Lipumba said the anomalies in the Zanzibar PVR also affect the Union poll register and unless they are dealt with in time, they would result in a major constitutional hitch during and after the elections.
’’CUF declares that if the anomalies in the Zanzibar PVR will not be rectified, we will not recognise the results because there are glaring errors in the register,’’ he said.
He said that his party would resort to ’’people power’’ to ensure Zanzibar gets leaders elected by the people ’’freely and fairly’’.
Prof Lipumba said the Zanzibar PVR had many errors that must be rectified and cited the disenfranchisement of about 12,000 potential voters.
Prof Lipumba said ZEC must also account for the increase of registered voters from 499,024 announced after the registration exercise to 509,634 when the register was recently opened to public scrutiny. He termed the increase by 10,601 people as suspect.
He said ZEC and NEC had not given the public enough time to note down names of voters they suspected were ineligible.
He said that the correction forms were not enough for voters to update the data in the register.
Prof Lipumba also alleged that in almost every registration centre the number of registered people had increased by between 900 and 2,000.
He also alleged that in CUF strongholds, the number of voters had been reduced to enable CCM to have an advantage.
Prof Lipumba further pointed out the people who had registered more than once had been identified, but ZEC resorted to hiding the register to cover up the ruling party’s plot to rig the polls.
’’In every registration centre, there are names of people who have registered more than once,’’ he said.
’’It appears that ZEC had failed to prepare a credible permanent voter register in line with the CCM/CUF accord,’’ he said.
However, Lipumba said that the two electoral bodies still had the chance and time to make amends.
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