Tanzania's ruling party meets
2005-05-04 10:32
Dodoma - Members of Tanzania's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM - Revolutionary Party) were to meet on Wednesday to select their presidential candidate for elections set for October, officials said.
More than 1 800 CCM delegates were gathering in the northern administrative capital of Dodoma to choose between Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete, Communications and Transport Minister Mark Mwandosya and Salim Ahmed Salim, a former secretary general of the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union), they said.
The successful candidate must win more than 50% of the votes.
Analysts here believe that a CCM candidate is likely to win the election to succeed incumbent Benjamin Mkapa, who steps down in November at the end of his second and final five-year term in office.
Meanwhile, the CCM branch in Zanzibar selected the incumbent president of the semi-autonomous Tanzanian island, Amani Karume, as the party's candidate, meaning he will seek a second term in the post, officials said.
Karume was chosen late on Tuesday after Mohammed Billal, his rival in the party, withdrew his name.
The run-up to the election campaign on Zanzibar has been marked by several clashes between supporters of the CCM and the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) that twice last month forced suspensions in the voter registration process.
The CCM has dominated Tanzania's political scene since independence in 1961, and its candidate will hold a critical edge in the October election, the third since the Tanzanian union adopted a multiparty political system in 1992.