'The people will rise'
2005-09-07 13:52
Nairobi - Zanzibar's opposition presidential candidate Seif Shariff Hamad on Wednesday warned of a Ukraine-style revolution if the ruling party rigs next month's elections, raising tension in Tanzania's politically volatile semi-autonomous state.
Hamad, the secretary-general of Civic United Front (CUF), said they would launch a revolution similar to that in Ukraine last year, if authorities did not act on a raft of complaints to ensure the October 30 legislative and presidential elections were impartial.
They ranged from claims that the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM - Revolutionary Party) had doctored voters registers to those the party was training, "Janjaweed" militia, to battle opposition supporters in case chaos erupted on Zanzibar island.
'We will demonstrate peacefully'
Hamad said: "If these conditions are not met, the people of Zanzibar will follow the example of Ukraine - we will demonstrate peacefully until our rights are recognised, until the government of the people is allowed to take charge."
The CUF, which had alleged massive fraud in the 1995 and 2000 elections losses to the CCM, said the ruling party had connived with the electoral board to rig the elections after authorities last month suspended contract with South Africa's Waymark Infotech to review and verify voter registration lists.
CCM claimed that more that 60 000 people on the island had double-registered or registered illegally, while several thousand opposition supporters had been barred from registering.
He said: "If the elections are rigged once again, the people will rise and we will have no choice, but to express our dissatisfaction in the only way we know - through peaceful demonstrations."
Necessary infrastructure
Hamad was referred to the so-called "orange revolution", or mass street protests, against the election fraud in Ukraine that ousted the government and brought in a new reformist administration in 2004.
In addition, Hamad said authorities in the island and mainland Tanzania had failed to put in place necessary infrastructure to facilitate a free and fair elections, notably an accurate voters roll.
Hamad warned: "Unless these deficiencies are rectified, the register on which the elections are based cannot be considered credible and the results therefore cannot be considered valid."
After Tanzania's 2000 elections - the second multi-party vote since political pluralism was restored in 1992 - some 40 people were killed in violence between opposition and ruling party supporters on the island.
- AFP