Tanzania held presidential election on Sunday

Big numbers of people in Tanzania turned out on Sunday to vote for the next president and other political leaders in a highly-contested election.

Big numbers of people in Tanzania turned out on Sunday to vote for the next president and other political leaders in a highly-contested election.

Thousands of voters queued and endured the scorching tropical sun in the Tanzanian capital city of Dar es Salaam for several hours, waiting to cast their votes to elect Tanzaniaโ€™s fifth president, members of parliament, and civic leaders.

Police vans equipped with tear gas equipment and uniformed anti-riot police patroled the Dar es Salaam streets, while hundreds of people, mostly youths believed to be members of the opposition parties, were arrested by the police for interrogation.

The Sunday general election has the opposition side posing the greatest threat in decades to the long-ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party.

Former Prime Minister, Edward Lowassa, leads the opposition Chadema party against the Minister for Works and the ruling partyโ€™s candidate, John Magufuli.

Chama Cha Mapinduzi is the longest remaining reigning ruling party in Africa, standing at 54 years.

Poverty is a big problem facing many Tanzanians and a leading political agenda for the opposition side. Tanzania has a big record of unemployment, mostly among the youth. A large number of Tanzanian youth are not well-employed or they have jobs that cannot sustain them to meet family needs.

The opposition Chadema leaders have blamed the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party for embracing policies which have brought Tanzania to poor education and health, and poor agricultural production during the past 54 years.

Rampant corruption and abject poverty are the main agenda Mr. Lowassa and the opposition side has been addressing to crowds during their election campaign, accusing the outgoing government over a tendency of downplaying the peopleโ€™s demands to end corruption which had surfaced from key government departments.

In his media statement over the weekend, Mr. Lowassa had blamed the ruling partyโ€™s position on embracing corruption, injustice, and abject poverty, promising electorates to see a bright future through him.

He promised the voters of his plans to revive Tanzaniaโ€™s dying airline which has been surviving through government subsidies, while looking to increase the tourist base through investments and wildlife protection.

The opposition had as well accused Chama Cha Mapinduzi of planning to rig the votes, citing comments from top officials of the ruling party vowing to defend its leadership by hook or crook, stating its position of not conceding to voting results.

While the ruling party strongly denies the rigging accusation, the party’s past victories in 2000, 2005, and 2010 have been met with incidents of violence and fraud allegations, although the elections were declared largely free and relatively fair by international observers. Over 22 million voters were expected to turn out to cast their votes.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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