‘Our presidential nominees’ to be known on July 12: CCM

Dar es Salaam. The Union and Zanzibar presidential candidates on the CCM ticket will be known on July 12 this year after the conclusion of its Congress, the ruling party announced yesterday.

CCM’s Ideology and Publicity secretary Humphrey Polepole said the doors would be open from June 15 to aspirants for the Presidency, Parliamentary seats and Ward/Council elections to throw the dice when nomination process starts. The announcement puts on course the race for President John Magufuli’s re-election, and the search for Zanzibar President Ali Mohamed Shein’s successor.

CCM has a long-held tradition of allowing a first-term incumbent to get a second and final five-year term in office before seeking his successor.

Until today, no CCM member has come forth openly to declare an intention to challenge President Magufuli who has arguably won enormous support among the party’s top cadres - with some suggesting that he be allowed to go for re-election unopposed.

Calls have been made from various quarters, including some CCM MPs, that President Magufuli - who is also the party’s chairman - should contest unopposed on account of his outstanding leadership.

Yesterday, Mr Polepole told journalists at the CCM Lumumba offices in the city that the Party Congress will vote to choose one out of three names submitted by its National Executive Committee (NEC) to represent the party in the Union presidential race. “The Party Congress to meeting from July 11 to July 12, 2020 will also endorse the name of the Zanzibar presidential candidate submitted by NEC during its July 10 meeting,” he said.

CCM presidential aspirants are allowed to collect nomination forms from June 15, 2020 until 4pm on June 30, this year. “The 15 days should be used by the Union and the Zanzibar presidential candidates to look for 250 sponsors from 12 regions - including at least two from Zanzibar,” he said.

The Secretariat will convene on July 1 and July 2 this year on the Zanzibar presidential candidate, and July 6 and July 7 to review the search process for the Union presidential candidate. The meetings will be followed by CCM’s Defence and Security Committee on July 3 for the Zanzibar presidency, and July 8, 2020 for the Union Presidency.

“On July 4, 2020, the party’s Central Committee (CC) will submit five names of cadres aspiring for the Union presidency to NEC, which would pick three names to be vetted by the Party Congress,” he said. On July 4, the CC will pick members aspiring for the Zanzibar Presidency and forward them to NEC to choose one name and submit it to the Congress.

Forms for cadres eyeing Parliamentary, the House of Representatives seats and councillorship would be collected between July 14 and July 17 this year.