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As CUF alleges six of its officials are abducted
2005-10-31 07:30:04
By Guardian Reporters and Agencies, Zanzibar
Civic United Front (CUF) alleged yesterday that six of its staff had been kidnapped by government agents and vowed that it would not accept the poll results.
The party’s Isles presidential candidate Seif Shariff Hamad told journalists that CUF chief of protocol Hamad Mmanga Hamad, his aide Khamis Haji Omar and his driver Mohammed Abdallah were being held hostage by KMKM paramilitary forces at its Kijibweni camp.
He said two other party officials had gone missing and that their cellphones were in the hands of unco-operative people.
He identified them as the party’s district secretaries for West and Mtoni constituencies Salim Said and Juma Ubwabwa, respectively.
He said both incidents took place at 2am yesterday.
Hamad also said that there were irregularities in the yesterday elections, pointing them out as lack of result sheets at polling stations and missing voters’ names in the voter register.
He said that, if the irregularities will not be rectified, especially the result sheets, his party would reject the outcome.
’’If these irregularities are not going to be sorted out in good time, especially the result sheets, CUF will not accept the poll outcome,’’ he told local and international journalists.
The accusations followed scuffles between rival supporters as polling began at 7am. Opposition voters beat and dragged away CCM supporters, whom they said were ferried to vote in areas such as Stone Town where the CUF is strong, witnesses said.
Responding, CCM publicity secretary for Zanzibar, Vuai Ali Vuai, said CUF’s allegations were baseless because voters were supposed to carry their voter IDs to match the information with that in the voter register.
Commenting on the missing names, he said: ’’Even CCM members had missing names at a number of polling stations he visited.’’ He said had advised them to sort out the anomaly with the electoral commission.
There were six presidential candidates eyeing Isles’ top seat in yesterday’s polls. Besides Hamad, President Amani Abeid Karume is seeking re-election on CCM ticket, which has been in power for 44 years.
The others were Jahazi Asilia’s Mussa Haji Kitole, NRA’s Simai A. Abdulrahaman, SAU’s Mariam A. Omary and DP’s Abdallah A. Abdallah.
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