Mwinyi: I am ready to work with the opposition-VIDEO

Dar es Salaam. CCM’s Zanzibar presidential candidate Hussein Ali Mwinyi said he was ready to honour the Constitution and work alongside opposition, as he was declared winner of this year’s presidential election by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC).

Mr Mwinyi garnered 76.27 percent of the vote’s cast on Wednesday October 28, 2020 in Tanzania’s semi-autonomous islands, giving him the first five-year term. “I promise you that I’m ready to honour the reconciliation as indicated in the Constitution, and work by cooperating with you in building a new Zanzibar,” he said addressing fellow candidates during the ZEC’s announcement yesterday.

The Zanzibar Constitution stipulates that the winner of the presidential election forms a Government of National Unity together with the party that takes the second position provided that it secures 10 percent of the total vote cast.

According to the results announced by the Electoral Commission yesterday, Seif Sharif Hamad of ACT-Wazalendo came in second after securing 99, 103 (19.87 per cent) of the total votes cast.

Dr Mwinyi said, “Election is over, I urge you all to heal from the wounds of election and work together to build a new Zanzibar. Fellow leaders should guide the people in accepting the results and maintain peace, solidarity and unity”.

Formed in 2010, the Government of National Unity (GNU) was unable to be formed in the previous (2015) government as then Civic United Front (CUF) candidate Seif Sharif Hamad boycotted the repeat elections and the second winner did not reach the 10 percent threshold. In 2015, general election Hamad Rashid Mohammed of Alliance for Democratic Change (ADC) came in second after securing 9,734 (3 per cent) of the total votes cast. Dr Mwinyi became the first presidential candidate in Zanzibar to garner over 70 percent of the votes in a competitive election.

In 1995, the then CUF candidate, Sharif Hamad was narrowly defeated by the then CCM candidate Salmin Amour when he (Hamad) secured 49.76 percent of the votes against Salmin Amour’s 50.24 percent. In the 2000 elections, Mr Hamad was again defeated by CCM’s Amani Abeid Karume when the former polled 32.96 percent against 67.04 percent of the latter in elections that were widely condemned by observers and which resulted into the killings of CUF members in Pemba and during which for the first time in the country’s history, Tanzania produced refugees.

Official results for the October 2005 elections put Mr Hamad at 46.07 percent against Mr Karume’s 53.18 percent.

When Mr Hamad ran against CCM’s Dr Ali Mohammed Shein in October 2010, the results were 49.1 percent for Mr Hamad and 50.1 percent of Dr Shein. The two went on to form a Government of National Unity, with Mr Hamad becoming the First Vice President.

In 2015, the electoral commission cancelled the elections for reasons only known to the team and Mr Hamad refused to participate in the rerun of the elections which brought Dr Shein back to power.

At the announcement of the results yesterday, Mr Hamad was the only missing face, with his party, ACT-Wazalendo, reporting that he, along with several other senior cadres, had been arrested.

Of the 566,352 registered Zanzibari voters, ZEC chairman Retired Chief Justice (CJ) Hamid Mahmoud Hamid, while announcing the results, said the total turnout Sunday was 498, 786 which is 88.07 per cent of all the registered voters.