CHADEMA DEMANDS RECOUNT OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION BALLOTS

Tanzania Opposition Party Demands Recount of Presidential-Election Ballots

By Wilfred Mwakalosi and Sarah McGregor - Nov 3, 2010 6:45 PM GMT+0300

Tanzania’s opposition Chadema party demanded a recount of ballots from an Oct. 31 presidential election, alleging that results announced by the electoral commission are different to those released at polling stations.

“We have evidence on this and we speak not only as a political party, but we also speak on behalf of the majority of Tanzanians who feel they are being robbed of their civic right to choose their leaders,” Freeman Mbowe, national chairman of the party, said in a phone interview today from Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital.

Calls to the mobile phone of Rajab Kiravu, director of elections at the commission, didn’t connect when Bloomberg sought comment.

President Jakaya Kikwete who is seeking a second term, won the most votes in 144 of 168 constituencies counted so far, the National Electoral Commission said in an e-mailed statement today. Wilbrod Slaa, the leader of Chadema, has a majority of ballots in three constituencies, while Ibrahim Lipumba of the Civic United Front has the largest share in the remaining areas, it said.

The commission isn’t providing the percentage of votes obtained by the candidates. Those tallies will be published and the winner announced once all ballots have been counted, probably no later than Nov. 5, Ruth Masham, a spokeswoman for the commission, said in a phone interview today.

‘Accelerate’

The commission needs to accelerate the announcement of results as protests have taken place in Dar es Salaam and other places over the slow pace, Paul East, head of the Commonwealth’s observer mission, said yesterday.

Kikwete, 60, has pledged to maintain fiscal policies that are expected to drive the economic-growth rate to 6.5 percent this year and 6.7 percent in 2011. Tanzania is Africa’s fourth- largest gold exporter after South Africa, Ghana and Mali. Companies including Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the precious metal, and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. have mines in the country.

Tanzania’s ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi is poised to win 188 of the 239 elected seats in parliament, the Daily News reported today, citing Abdulrahman Kinana, the party’s campaign manager.

Earlier today, Ali Mohamed Shein of Tanzania’s ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi party was sworn in as president of the Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar, which is in a political union with Tanzania.

To contact the reporters on this story: Wilfred Mwakalosi in Dar es Salaam atwmwakalosi1@bloomberg.net; Sarah McGregor in Nairobi at smcgregor5@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Richardson atpmrichardson@bloomberg.net