Voters Turn Out for Zanzibar Election
By CHRIS TOMLINSON
Associated Press Writer
October 30, 2005, 10:17 AM EST
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania --
Police and ruling party militia chased opposition supporters through the streets Sunday as voters chose between the socialists who have ruled semiautonomous Zanzibar for more than 30 years and an opposition group promising wholesale change.
Voting in national and regional elections on mainland Tanzania was postponed to Dec. 18 because of a vice presidential candidate's death, leaving attention focused on Zanzibar, where ballots in 1995 and 2000 were marred by violence and allegations of fraud by the ruling party.
Many Zanzibaris viewed Sunday's vote as the East African archipelago's last chance to make Western-style democracy work. There were worries that radicals in the predominantly Muslim state could cite a third flawed election as proof for the need of an Islamic government.
Most polling stations reported turnouts exceeding 80 percent when polls closed.
Results were not expected until later in the week.
Zanzibar's regional president, Amani Karume, predicted his Chama Cha Mapinduzi would win the majority of ballots cast by the island's 507,000 voters.
"We believe we have the numbers," Karume said. "We don't expect to lose."
There had been no reliable independent opinion polls, but observers expected a close race between the ruling party and the opposition Civic United Front, which campaigned on a promise to privatize state-owned businesses and make wide-ranging economic reforms.
Seif Shariff Hamad, leader of the Civic United Front, also predicted victory. But at midday, he called a news conference to say most polling stations did not have the proper paperwork to report final results.
"There were a lot of irregularities that make us very much worried that this election will not be free and fair," Hamad told reporters.
He said the opposition would take to the streets in protest if the election was not free and fair.
More than a dozen people were admitted to hospitals with injuries related to election violence, officials said.
The violence erupted after police and ruling party officials tried to truck in hundreds of people to vote at several polling stations in Zanzibar's main city over the objections of residents. Riot police fired live ammunition and tear gas canisters to chase away neighborhood men.
The disputed voters were listed on a register that has been the source of argument since elections were scheduled. Opposition supporters claimed the government was trying to dilute the strength of its opponents by bringing in phony voters.
When protests continued, police used high-pressure nozzles mounted on heavy trucks to spray water laced with tear gas. The water cannons sprayed indiscriminately and targeted international journalists attempting to observe the violence.
Associated Press reporters visited more than a dozen polling stations and opposition party agents complained of administrative problems along with the contested voter register. Ruling party agents did not report any problems.
Journalists saw uniformed members of the ruling party's Green Guard severely beat at least one man suspected of being an opposition supporter.
Regional Police Chief George Kiziguto refused to answer any questions. No other officials were available for comment.
At one station, ruling party candidate Boniface Joseph Mwale, who held a large knife, tried to force polling officials to allow a number of unregistered voters to cast ballots. This sparked a scuffle, and police eventually whisked Mwale away, but officers stood by as the unregistered people eventually did vote.
Fatma Abdulhabib Ferej, an opposition parliamentary candidate in Stone Town, said the Zanzibar Electoral Commission illegally added 2,000 names to the voter register in her district.
At his final rally Saturday, Karume emphasized the ruling party's record since the 1964 revolution that his father led to become the island's first president.
The Zanzibar revolutionary government drove out the sultan of Oman, then formed a union with the former British colony of Tanganyika on the mainland to create Tanzania and established a socialist system with state-run industries.
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