Zanzibar to fund elections
2005-08-23 20:40
Tanzania - Zanzibar will foot the bill for upcoming general elections, accusing donors of interfering in the October 30 polls in this semiautonomous archipelago, said a senior official on Tuesday.
Western donor nations had been pressing the administration and the Zanzibar electoral commission to ensure that the presidential, legislative and local government polls were free and fair.
Minister for good gGovernance and constitutional affairs Ali Juma Shamhuna said the cash-strapped government decided to fund the elections after some donor countries and opposition parties supported efforts to take the permanent voters' register abroad for verification - a move that would interfere with free and fair elections.
Shamhuna said: "From now onwards, for the purpose of eliminating controversy of donors interfering with the work of the commission on the pretext of aid, the government has decided to finance all electoral activities."
'We're not ready to be humiliated'
Shamhuna said: "We want to caution that Zanzibar is an independent state and is not a colony of any foreign country. We are not ready to be humiliated like that."
It was not immediately clear how much Zanzibar would spend in the elections.
The archipelago's first permanent voters' roll was one of the most contentious issues on Zanzibar's volatile politics.
The government had suspended the contract of a South African company hired to install an electronic system to check over the voter register.
Zanzibar united with Tanganyika in 1964 after the violent ouster of the Arab Sultan to form the United Republic of Tanzania.
October's elections were for both Tanzanian and Zanzibari regional presidencies.
A vote for Tanzania's 322-member national legislature, Zanzibar's 50-member house of representatives and local councillors in both parts of the union would also be held that day.
- AP