Zanzibar polls end amid claims of irregularities, intimidation

Presidential, parliamentary and local council elections on Tanzania's semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar were conducted relatively peacefully on Sunday, despite widespread allegations of voting irregularities and claims of government intimidation of opposition supporters. "At my polling station, at least 10 people have so far been denied their right to vote, although they have valid voter's cards and are on the permanent voters' register," Khalifa Mohammed Khalifa, a local council candidate for the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) in the island's Bububu area, said on Sunday. Pockets of violence - mainly in the island's capital of Stone Town, where the opposition has its strongest following – tarnished an otherwise largely peaceful election that was closely monitored by the media and international observers. Notably, the Forodhani polling station, in the heart of Stone Town, was the scene of battles between supporters of ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and CUF, which involved stone-throwing and fist fights. However, police later stopped the violence. At one time, voting at the station was temporarily suspended as the police tried to calm the situation. "Youths who had completed voting at Forodhani refused to leave the station and began to harass others who were trying to vote," Khamis Mohammed Simba, Zanzibar's assistant police commissioner, told reporters. "We made it clear that people should vote and return to their homes to avoid trouble." CUF presidential candidate Seif Sharif Hamad said two of his assistants, as well as two bodyguards and two drivers, were "abducted" on Saturday as they went home. "They have still not been released and no reason for their abduction and confinement at KM-KM [Zanzibar's anti-smuggling police unit known by its Swahili name] headquarters has been given," he said shortly after casting his vote. However, Simba said the six men had been arrested because they had been seen "secretly carrying boxes that looked like ballot boxes into a house in Bububu". He added: "The men were not snatched or abducted; they were arrested and presented to the police while the house was searched. They are being held at KM-KM headquarters for further investigation." Hamad said any charges against the men were "trumped up". He reiterated his complaint about the heavy deployment of security forces on the island. Heavily armed police and soldiers were deployed from the mainland to the island, but the police maintained that the move was simply to "keep the peace and protect Zanzibaris". Claims of multiple voting were also widespread, with voters at several Stone Town polling stations claiming the government was bringing in illegal voters to swing the vote in their favour. "We have seen people in the queue with two voter's cards, sometimes more than two, being permitted to vote," a voter at Forodhani said. "These people are being brought in by trucks and are being taken from one polling station to another to vote again and again." However, the CUF parliamentary candidate for the Mji Mkongwe Constituency, Mohammed Ibrahim Sanya, said the illegal voters were known to the locals and were generally not being permitted to vote. "They come and try to vote, but the constituents know them and flush them out of the queues," he said. The opposition reported that several polling stations did not have the required 10 copies of results sheets, as stipulated by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission rules, but a commission official denied the allegation, saying it was "mere opposition propaganda". Hamad said if the result sheets had not been delivered by the end of voting, and if CUF felt the irregularities had interfered with the overall electoral process, his party would reject the election results. Hamad, a former chief minister and two-time loser in Zanzibar's presidential poll, said he was confident of victory this time if the election was not tampered with. This was Zanzibar's third election since the introduction of multiparty politics to Tanzania in 1992. International election monitors were critical of elections in 1995 and 2000, which were characterised by post-election violence in which scores were killed. Just over half of the island's one million people were registered to vote in Sunday's poll. Observers have expressed concern about the immediate post-election period, after results are announced. Zanzibar merged with mainland state of Tanganyika to form Tanzania in 1964, shortly after independence from the United Kingdom. It elects its own president who is head of government for matters internal to the island. Zanzibar also has its own House of Representatives to make laws especially for it. Voting on the island and the mainland for the Union president and parliament - originally scheduled for Sunday - was deferred to 18 December following the death of a candidate for the union's vice-presidency. Casting his vote at Kiembe Samaki polling station, incumbent Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume said, "Elections are a numbers game, and we believe we have the numbers to win."