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There were flaws in 2005 Z`bar polls – ZEC report
2007-11-06 08:57:09
By Mwinyi Sadallah in Zanzibar
A just-released report on the highly contested results of the 2005 general elections in Zanzibar says security forces interfered with the operations of the Isles electoral commission.
The report was compiled by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) and its details were made available in Zanzibar yesterday.
It confirms that there were irregularities in the elections, including interference by security forces particularly during the period people were being registered for the polls.
Many people had been eagerly waiting for the report, which ZEC Chairman Masauni Yussuf Masauni handed over to Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume last week.
The widespread interest was largely due to the fact that the opposition and some international observers had expressed dissatisfaction over the way the elections were conducted.
According to the report, law-enforcement agents made all security decisions during the registration of voters and the actual casting of ballots without involving the commission.
The report further notes that the said agents were registered without even involving ZEC, a practice it denounces as contrary to the commission’s regulations.
`SMZ (Zanzibar Government) forces made all decisions with regards to security during the registration and voting exercises without involving the commission,` reads part of the 70-page report.
It says the agents toured voters` registration centres without consulting or informing the commission or its leaders and would not budge whenever asked to do observe the laid down regulations.
The law-enforcement agents would not show up whenever the commission requested them to go and clear abnormalities as the registration exercise went on in Zanzibar`s Mjini Magharibi (Urban West) Region, observes the ZEC report.
It recommends that local government leaders popularly known here as shehas be vested with less decision-making power, particularly with respect to election activities, adding that if possible all decisions should be made by the commission.
The report says the exercise ran contrary to the ethical principles guiding the operations of political parties, elaborating: `The commission calls for parties involved in the elections to be accountable by abiding by the election guidelines.`
It notes that many countries use the system to avoid political disputes that could degenerate into civil strife and turmoil.
ZEC says in its report that there were a lot of ambiguities in the Isles` 1984 Constitution and the election laws specifically with regard to the tenure of the Zanzibar President and the person or authority with the mandate to announce the election date.
It is also reported that the leaders of some political parties felt superior to ZEC and forced people to abide by their ideologies `which was wrong because it created conflicts between the commission and law enforcers`.
The report is said to be a compilation of findings of a study carried out by inspecting the Permanent Voters` Register, complete with the photographs of all the people registered, of whom 1,197 voters were found to have registered twice.
It states that the names of a number of prospective voters were stricken off the voters` registration book over problems that included the tendering of false details.
The report blames the Government for failing to make timely disbursements of election funds despite having received plans on the election process well in advance.
`Failure on the part of the government to deliver funding for elections on time led to the delay in registration exercise,` says the report, adding that ZEC spent 2.3bn/- providing training to voters and accessing facilities for the exercise – of which 1.2bn/- was from donors.
The submission of the report coincided with the completion of the commission`s five-year tenure under the chairmanship of Masauni, whose deputy was Tanzania`s current Chief Justice, Augustine Ramadhan.
The commission`s members were Khatib Mwinyichande, Mosi Kassim Shamte, Halima Tawakali, Khairalla, Ussi Khamis Haji, and Nassor Seif Amour.
Prof Ibrahim Lipumba, national Chairman of the Civic United Front (Zanzibar’s main opposition party) was not available for comment on the report yesterday – nor was the party’s Secretary General, Maalim Seif Shariff Hamad.
The Guardian managed to reach the party’s deputy secretary general for Zanzibar, Ismail Jusa, who said `I don`t have any information about the said report. It`s only now that I am hearing about it from you. Therefore, I’ve no comment to make on the issue at the moment.`
The Civic United Front, more popularly known as CUF, narrowly lost the 2000 and 2005 Isles’ general elections to the ruling CCM.
It blamed the defeats on irregularities in the entire electoral process, notably voter registration and vote counting, unsuccessfully calling for a re-run of the poll.
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