|
Formality and innovation in being a presidential candidate (3)
2005-10-01 09:17:40
By Ani Jozeni
One issue that isn’t being discussed at the national level and might have in that sense hold harm for opposition parties (especially CUF and NCCR-Mageuzi) is the undemocratic tradition in Zanzibar.
CUF talk of defending their votes against being stolen again as it is largely believed that happened in 1995 (disputed announcing of results) or in 2000 (disruption of voting in 16 constituencies) It doesn’t discuss the legacy of the post - 1964 killings, tortures and treason trials, nor holds in much esteem individuals who battled this.
Yet it might be inaccurate to criticize the opposition too intensely for this, as this mood is a reflection of the prestige that the Isles revolution still enjoys in the eyes of the public.
In view of a rather superficial democratic tradition going back to being allowed to organize parties in 1992, without having brought the body politic to profoundly examine the way the state (both parts of the Union) has been governed since 1964, this limitation was in a large measure unavoidable.
It cripples the formulation of a clear doctrine of change, in Isles.
Were it that the CUF was fighting or battling along a wide democratic front, it would have been able to use divisions in CCM concerning the candidacy of Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, where discriminatory tendencies were noticed.
Nor was it possible for NCCR-Mageuzi to bring up the candidacy of Naila Jiddawi, an academic and widow of ex-freedom fighter in Mozambique and in the Uganda war, Col.
Ali Mahfoudh. The latter was a soldier and a revolutionary whom Idi Amin is reputed to have said he was the only person he feared in Tanzania.He was buried a hero of the Mozambican freedom fighters, but is unknown locally.
One is left dumbfounded when, therefore, Dr Sengondo Mvungi (or in his newly elevated Christian first name , Edmund) stands up to accept the nomination and tells the audience (NCCR-Mageuzi and nationwide television) about his conducting research.
He also told them that he worked with or was listed to Dr Rodney, which might mesmerize a few radicals. But politics required that he asks (or party chairman James Mbatia) this lady to launch a wide freedom campaign all over the country, to condemn killings and treason trials.
That would also lead to a shift in votes, but not many voters can understand research that a candidate can bring about.
How many would cry with her about torture or treason?
As for the TLP leader, what is noticeable about his candidacy is the Bachelor of Arts he has lately received from Pacific Western University, the major correspondence college, for those who watch classified adverts in newspapers. Otherwise time has had the worst of all possible effects on him, that having been prevented from winning polls in 1995 chiefly due to Mwalimu’s campaign, he proceeded to prove him right with utter incapacity to hold the NCCR-Mageuzi together as a party, under his leadership.
He repeated the same divisive feat in the TLP to which he exiled himself after it all failed in his erstwhile party.
With all his former associates out there condemning him, chances that Mrema is elected or obtains at least a constituency seat is doubtful enough, except in his core Vunjo-Moshi Rural zone, or in one or two areas.
That isn’t the situation with his nearest competitor, Freeman Mbowe of Chadema who seeks to grab the rump TLP or Mrema constituency in Moshi, and among the more important candidates, is a novelty. He shares with Kikwete the fact of contending for the first time - and in a well constituted parliamentary party.
Thus the crowds turning out for the candidates mean different things for each of them, or rather for nationwide political observation.
Kikwete is both the ruling party candidate and thus best placed as the country’s next overall leader, and is immensely popular in his own right.
The fact that he came first in the preliminary votes in the CCM nomination meeting in 1995 speaks volumes of his popularity. He just repeated it this year by a wider margin.
One aspect of Kikwete’s popularity, which hasn’t been sufficiently underlined, is that it was prepared unwittingly by the president, not usually the best of his admirers.
It is not uncommon that people dislike their nearest competitors, especially when they win votes above them, and then the ultimate boss has to rely on combination, for instance, in the fact that Mwalimu apparently arranged for the late Dr Omar Ali Juma to be the running mate. This enabled all 200 votes from Zanzibar to be placed on Mkapa’s feet, as it were.
This time around no such combination was possible as all the voters for other contenders scantily added up to Kikwete’s own votes. The reason was that unlike the shift in cabinet late 1994, which removed unpopular contenders like premier John Malecela, and then the axing of his name by Mwalimu in the nominations, this time the premier lasted in his post for 10 years.
Thus the thrust of canvassing in the run to Dodoma nomination conference was preventing the premier from emerging the candidate; a Kikwete plebiscite - as it were.
This aspect of things might help to put to rest excessive concerns with the use of money, or obtaining campaign money from outside, an aspect of issues exaggerated by former PM Joseph Warioba.
Using his newly acquired mantle of a bench member at the East African Court of Justice, or as chairman of the Ethics Committee of the media council, he paints a grave picture of the future of democracy.
It\’s the rule of money, or as Demokrasia Makini candidate Prof. Leonard Shayo puts it, a drug dealer might one day win, given the onerous cash demands of the vetting process by the electoral commission to collect signatures, etc.
|
