Opposition urges implementation of Zanzibar accord

The head of Tanzania's opposition Civic United Front (CUF) party has repeated his call for renewed efforts to fully implement a political agreement between the ruling Chama Cha Mapunduzi (CCM) and CUF so that free and fair elections can be held on the Zanzibar archipelago. CUF Chairman Ibrahim Lipumba told IRIN that the implementation process "is a little slow" and that work to strengthen the electoral secretariat and the appointment of CUF representatives on the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) had not been completed as required. This was necessary in order to prepare for next year's election of 17 seats in the House of Representatives "that were taken away from the CUF", he said. "If we make the necessary appointments now, we can still manage to have the elections completed in a free and fair manner by March 2002," he said. "However if this parliamentary session ends without the passing of the electoral reforms and the appointment of our members, there will be a lot of problems as, by law, the elections have to be completed by March, and putting together a voter register can be complicated." The Muafaka [Kiswahili for agreement] was signed in October last year after growing tensions between the two parties on the archipelago. There were accusations of rigging during the 2000 elections, and a subsequent opposition demonstration on the island of Pemba in January 2001 left an estimated 35 CUF supporters dead after police opened fire. Analysts say the official explanation behind the delay is that the revised Zanzibari constitution requires the leader of the opposition to be consulted in the appointment of members of the ZEC. However, at present there is no opposition on Zanzibar as they have all been dismissed or expelled. "The president could appoint two CUF members to parliament and they could form an opposition, one of them could be declared leader and the ZEC members appointed," said Zanzibari historian, Professor Abdul Shariff. "But the minimum legal requirements for an opposition have been increased to five, so there are further legal obstacles." However, there are also concerns that the initial good intentions shown by both sides might be lagging. "A few months ago people were more optimistic but now there are those who have begun to ask more questions and they are wondering whether there are a few people, or more, that are dragging their feet," Shariff added. The ruling CCM has acknowledged that, at the moment, there are issues to resolve but feels that efforts to do so will be successful. "The implementation of the Muafaka is on track, except for a few hitches that we come across sometimes. This is not the first problem that we have come across, but as was the case in the past, we are facing this one and we are sure we will get over it," Omar Rhamadani Mapuri, the CCM co-Chairman of the Muafaka Implementation Committee told IRIN. While there is some concern regarding delays in the implementation of the agreement, Shariff believes the problems are not insurmountable. "It seems that the CCM leadership is still very much for the implementation of the Muafaka, so we are hopeful that things will be resolved," he stated.