Report warns of corruption, violence ahead of elections

An East Africa Law Society report released on Friday cites evidence of corruption in the voter registration process on Tanzania’s semi autonomous island of Zanzibar as well as an "underlying environment of police brutality and intimidation" ahead of Tanzania’s nationwide election. "There were palpable complaints of voter disenfranchisement through denial of voter registration; electoral gerrymandering through vote-loading; and voter intimidation through state- and party-sponsored violence," the law society said in the report issued following its mission to Zanzibar’s islands of Pemba and Unguja in May. General elections in Tanzania are set for 30 October although the date for elections in Zanzibar has not yet been fixed. One allegation in the report is that police in Zanzibar are "unjustifiably violent" and their actions "clearly unconstitutional". They scare away many potential voters, especially women, the law society said. "This aura of intimidation of course affects the ability of people to register and may ultimately affect the acceptability and legitimacy of any eventual electoral outcomes," it said. The police’s anti-crime efforts, it said, "seem to target suburbs or sections that are perceived to be opposition strongholds". It blamed the Isles Deputy Attorney General Omar Makungu, "who confirmed being an eye witness to a police operation carried out in the early evening hours, where they descended unannounced at a residential shopping area and indiscriminately and mercilessly beat everyone and anyone in sight, without even questioning them". The report also questioned the independence and efficacy of the Zanzibar Electoral Commission and said it seemed that some of the denials of registration were resolved through corruption. "We strongly recommend that the claims of voter disenfranchisement should be addressed as a matter of national urgency ... to ensure a level playing ground," it said. Balance is particularly important, the report said, because in the last two elections, the votes for the two leading contenders for president of Zanzibar "was so closely contested that, literally, every vote (and every potential vote) counts". The law society mission said it heard persistent allegations of "discriminatory treatment" against the main opposition party, the Civic United Front (CUF). For example, it said, authorities denied CUF an opportunity to hold rallies but allowed the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party candidates to hold similar rallies. The two parties, the law society said, also had "skewed access" to the media. The mission found evidence that both the government and opposition parties were cheating. Each is "importing" supporters to constituencies they feel their candidate is likely to lose in what the report calls "vote loading". It said: "Voters are imported from as far a field as mainland Tanzania, or the coastal areas of Kenya or Mozambique… The ruling CCM accuses CUF of importing voters from Pemba (where it has a near-fanatical support) into Unguja." The report cited repeated allegations that both parties had enlisted party militia who undergo paramilitary training. "The CCM, it was reported, has Party Youth Cadres (sometimes pejoratively referred to by the political opposition as Janjaweed.) CUF, on the other hand, also has its Party Youth, sometimes referred to as the Blue Guard," it said. The mission also said that there are now "no-go areas" on the island where members of the each party dare not enter.