Clashes, fraud mar election
2005-10-31 09:44
Zanzibar - Voters in the popular tourist destination of Zanzibar went to the polls on Sunday to elect their own president and lawmakers in an election marred, like previous such ballots, by violence and fraud.
At least seven people were injured, two by bullets and five by machetes or sticks, according to a doctor in the capital of this semi-autonomous offshore state of Tanzania.
The doctor, who asked not to be named, said the bullets had been fired by the army.
Enthusiasm for the elections was clear, when long queues formed outside polling stations.
Tear gas used to disperse opposition
Outside one polling station in the capital, Stone Town, security forces used live rounds and tear gas to disperse supporters of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) who were protesting against the presence of ineligible voters trucked in by the ruling Revolutionary Party (CCM).
No-one was injured in this incident.
Rival groups of supporters clashed at several other places in Stone Town.
An AFP photographer said he had witnessed members of uniformed pro-government youth militia beating one opposition supporter "to a pulp".
Relations are permanently strained between the CCM and CUF, with the opposition accusing the CCM of having stolen the last two elections, in 1995 and 2000.
More than 30 people were killed after the last elections and this year's campaigns were marred by clashes with nearly 200 people wounded and several believed to have been killed.
Voter fraud witnessed
Independent election observers at polling stations said they had also witnessed flagrant cases of voter fraud.
"They're doing it in broad daylight, and couldn't give a damn about us observers," said one, asking not to be named.
He explained he had seen people vote even though their names did not appear on the official register, something international journalists saw as well.
CUF presidential candidate Seif Shariff Hamad - who hopes to unseat the CCM's Amani Karume - said there had been "a lot of irregularities which make us very worried and make us fear that the elections will not be free and fair".
He accused the CCM of trying to "cook the results" by taking results sheets from polling stations.
The CCM said such claims were the reaction of "a dying horse".
Vote counting under way
Hamad has said that his supporters will take to the streets if his party does not emerge as the official winner of the polls.
Eight of Hamad's political associates were arrested on Saturday night, accused of handling ballot papers, police said. Hamad denies the charge.
Polls closed at 17:00, when the counting of ballots began at each voting station, often in the light of paraffin lamps.
Results are due by Wednesday.
Separate elections for the president and parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania - made up of Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania - will be held in mid-December, later than scheduled because of the death of a vice-presidential candidate.
- AFP