Soldiers fire on Zanzibar opposition supporters
 
2005-10-31 07:31:38
By Guardian Reporters and Agencies, Zanzibar

	An armed police stand guard as voters que at Kiembe Samaki polling centre (Photo: Mroki Mroki)

Soldiers fired one live round and lobbed teargas at opposition supporters yesterday in a clash outside a polling station in Zanzibar’s historic Stone Town, witnesses said.

In Mji Mkongwe constituency, four people were injured and 18 others arrested by police following a scuffle at Forodhani Primary School, where local residents said they had spotted ineligible voters among them.

Field Force Unit personnel moved in swiftly to put out the confrontation as chaos spread to Kiponda and Hurumzi streets.
Residents told the The Guardian that as a result of heavy presence of FFU and KMKM troops, some 133 did not vote.

They said the youths had been brought in from rural areas in buses escorted by KMKM officers to vote in the area.

’’If they were residents, why would they be escorted to the polling station by soldiers?’’ wondered Masoud Shalum, a resident of Stone Town.

The soldiers poured in numbers when opposition supporters reacted angrily to the arrival of scores of people they claimed were government supporters in vehicles shepherded by the military, Reuters witnesses said.

The military chased away opposition supporters, who had been hurling stones, while helping pro-government voters to queue outside the polling station.

One shot was fired overhead in full view of foreign journalists and some international election observers.

’’CUF is causing chaos. We cannot allow it,’’ one soldier said in reference to the opposition Civic United Front (CUF).

About half of one million people on Zanzibar island are eligible to vote in the poll that is too close to call between the CUF and Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), in office since the 1964 revolution.

Proud of its roots in the revolt by local African workers against an Arab ruling elite, ruling CCM says it guarantees stability and peace.

CUF accused by the government of a secret separatist agenda, alleges it was cheated of victory in 1995 and 2000 and vows to protest if that is repeated.

CUF said six of its workers were seized in the early hours on Sunday and by mid-morning was denouncing ’’widespread irregularities’’ including missing voter lists and unopened polling stations.

Rival voters in Zanzibar skirmished and the opposition alleged dirty tricks including the kidnapping of its six members as polling took place across the islands.

In the opposition stronghold of Stone Town, rock-throwing youths at several polling stations drove away groups of would-be voters whom they said the government had been illegally bringing in from rural areas to boost its vote, witnesses said.

In a contest widely seen as a test of Tanzania’s reputation as an otherwise stable nation, CUF hopes to wrest the local presidency from CCM, in office since the 1964 revolution.

A parallel national presidential election had also been set for yesterday, but was postponed until December 18 after the death of a vice presidential candidate.

A Reuters reporter at one polling station, on historic Stone Town’s picturesque seafront, saw youths kicking, punching and throwing stones at a group who arrived by minibus as voting began at 7am.

’’The government knows it cannot win here, so they have brought all these people in from the bush. We have chased away 100 already,’’ said opposition supporter, Rashid Mohamed.

’’They want to corrupt this election like the last one.’’
Zanzibar Election Commission spokesman Idrisa Jecha and government spokesman Vuai Ali Vuai both said there were minor problems, including voter registers, but categorised them as not serious.


CCM supporters accuse international media and observers – out in force across Zanzibar – of privately favouring the opposition.
As the sun rose an hour before polls opened, long queues could be seen outside voting stations in Unguja.

Mindful of a history of bloodshed at election time, and a string of clashes between rival supporters and police in past weeks, some tourists have stayed away from the tropical islands or holed up in remote beach resorts.

Some locals have left for the Mainland.
Incumbent President Amani Abeid Karume, son of Zanzibar’s first post-independence leader, expressed confidence as he voted. ’’Elections are a game of numbers and we believe we have the numbers,’’ Karume said.

But his rival Hamad, founder of the CUF when Tanzania introduced multi-party democracy in 1992, said he too was ”99 per cent sure of winning” as he cast his ballot.
Results are due within three days.

Meanwhile, In another serious incident at Bububu, CUF supporters are said to have attacked a young CCM supporter with a machete. The victim is in hospital, CCM said yesterday evening.

CCM deputy secretary general Saleh Ramadhan Feruzi, speaking to journalists said he hoped the police would act on lawbreakers.

He said that in a separate incident eight women were assaulted at Darajani in Stone Town by CUF supporters who also grabbed their voter’s cards. The women did not vote, he said.

In another development, several reporters yesterday found themselves in trouble with law enforcers as they were covering Zanzibar.

A photographer with The Guardian, Mroki Mroki, one of the newsmen who were arrested and later released by police said that trouble began at Malindi near the Zanzibar port when they were accused of ’’illegally’’ taking pictures of members of Field Force Unit who were on patrol.

Mroki said three other reporters from the Nation Media Group one of whom was identified as Sori Orto, were also arrested by the Zanzibar’s anti-smuggling unit (KMKM) on the same grounds and forced to dispose of part of video footage they had recorded.

Mroki also said that later in the evening there were reports of police impounding a camera from a photographer with the Tanzania Television (TvT), but the reasons could not be established immediately.
The name of the cameraman was given as Christian Mfinanga.

• SOURCE: Guardian