Vote counting underway in Tanzania’s tightest

In the run-up to the polls, the opposition has accused CCM of using state institutions to rig elections and intimidate its supporters, something the party and the government deny.

Other candidates for the presidential seat are Anna Mghwira of Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT), Hashim Rugwe of Chama cha Ukombozi wa Umma (CHAUMMA), Lutalosa Yembe of Alliance for Democratic Change (ADC), Janken Malik of National Reconstruction Alliance (NRA), Tanzania Labour Party’s (TLP) Machmillan Lyimo and United People’s Democratic Party (UPDP). He has a reputation as a fabulously wealthy politician, apparently one of the reasons why the ruling party rejected him as its presidential candidate.

A comedian with no political experience looks poised to become Guatemala’s next president when the country votes Sunday in a runoff election, amid the fallout of a massive corruption scandal. His friendship with Kikwete foundered and the party hierarchy blocked Lowassa from vying for the CCM presidential nomination this year.

Lowassa, who was addressing the press at the Chadema office in Dar es Salaam, said that the opposition’s tallying centre was invadedSunday night by police officers who arrested at least 119 young people, majority university students, who volunteered to help in consolidating the results. Whoever is elected president of mainland Tanzania must enhance government support and investment in smallholder farmers, experts said.

Current President Jakaya Kikwete is completing his two five-year terms, as allowed by the constitution. Officials were still tallying votes for a second day on Tuesday (27 October) as the election commission called for calm, after fears of unrest grew in the commercial capital Dar Es Salaam and on the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar.

The country has been ruled since then by the same party.

The polls are expected to be Tanzania’s tightest election ever, with the governing party facing the first major challenge to its dominance in decades.

A photo taken October 25, 2014 shows livestock trooping along a dusty plain at the foothills of Mount Meru near Arusha, Tanzania.

The chairman of the National Electoral Commission, Damian Lubuva, earlier dismissed allegations of any voting abuses.

Partial results of the presidential election are trickling in and full results are expected Thursday. Nevertheless, Tanzanians can expect a tight race, experts said. But I urge Shein, to be a gentleman so as not to put the country into chaos, ” Sharif Hamad said. Formed in 1977 in a merger of two post-colonial parties, the CCM has effectively been in power since independence in 1961, making it Africa’s longest-ruling party.