Tight screening for aspirants of 1990 parliamentary polls

Dar es Salaam. In yesterday’s edition we saw how Zanzibar’s President and Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Dr Salmin Amour, was elected on October 21, 1990.

He was elected president of Zanzibar one week before the General Election of the United Republic was held on October 28.

The polls were officially declared on June 11, 1990 as from there the whole process of presidential and parliamentary elections took its own course.

Registration of voters officiated by the then Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) secretary general, Rashidi Kawawa, started one month later, July 16, 1990 across the country.

On Tuesday, July 24 the Electoral Commission chose 342 overseers of the screening of contestants of parliamentary seats and members of the House of Representatives in all districts across the country. The screening took place on August 4 to 6, 1990.

The overseers, who were leaders of the party at different levels, were proposed by the party and chosen by the Electoral Commission and were also offered seminars on the execution of their duties. The seminars, which were held in the eight zones of Tanzania, took place on August 1 instead of July 31 as planned earlier.

The deadline of returning nomination forms by the parliamentary seat aspirants and members of the House of Representatives was on July 31.

The forms started being issued by returning officers in every constituency on July 16, the same day in which registration of voters began.

There were hundreds of parliamentary seat contestants including MPs, who were seeking re-election. In Dar es Salaam Region, about 129 aspirants handed in their filled-in forms on the same day. Kinondoni District, which this time around had two constituencies—Ubungo and Kawe—had the largest number of aspirants in the country, totaling 104.

Ubungo Constituency was with 62 aspirants who handed in their filled-in forms, Kawe (42), Ilala (12) and Temeke (13).

On the same day of July 31, the forms of the contestants were checked over and endorsed as the deadline of petitions were set on July 31 till the following day on August 1 at 4pm.

According to the Tanzania Electoral Commission’s Director General, Mahmoud Mwindadi, they checked over the filled-in forms to see whether they were correct or not.

On August 4, contesting members of the House of Representatives gave their explanations about why they were contesting before special general meetings in different districts in the country.

Aside from Zanzibar, which was not on the list of constituencies, whose reports were received by the Office of Director General of the Electoral Commission, 307 aspirants from 180 constituencies across the country handed in their filled-in forms.

One of the contestants, who picked forms, but failed to hand them in, was the Hai MP in Kilimanjaro Region, Charles Kileo, who was seeking reelection. He doubled as minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Regional Administrations).

Kileo was to contest for the constituency together with other four aspirants including Obadia Ndossy, Sipora Kimaro, Anasimbo Lema and Prof Aron John Massawe, who, all of them, handed-in their filled-in forms.

However, many MPs of the 1985-1990 parliament were screened successfully by the members of the special general meetings of the party in the districts.

One of them was Prime Minister and First Vice President Joseph Warioba, who, in the 1990 polls, contested for the Bunda parliamentary seat, whereby he scooped 530 votes in the screening while his only opponent, Ramadhani Manyama Mkondya, got 17 votes.

For Temeke Constituency, whose MP Masoud Masoud, who was seeking reelection, got 387 votes, followed by John Haule (146), Mashenene Chagu (32), Makongoro Seif (13), Hamis Omar Tajir (15) and the rest got below ten votes.

For Kawe constituency, James Yamungu got 241 votes, Wilfrem Robert Mwakitwange (137), Zainuddin Tayabali Adamjee (109), Mahende Faustino Muniko (30), Msakandeo Abdallah Mohamed (23), Kimatare Alex Moses (11), Kitoi Abasi Musa (11) and Bwemero Prosper Kuogilimbya (10) as the rest got below ten votes.

Ukiwaona Ditopile Mzuzuri, who was vying for Ilala Constituency, raked in 408 votes, Ghalib Kassim Salim (77), Mwinyi Juma Mwinyi (41), Rodger Bernard Nyoni (27), Maulid Pongwe Mbarak (22), Gabriel Janker Mwaijonda (19) and Samuel Mugaya Marwa (15). The rest, including Saleh Kassim Shamamkuu, got below 10 votes.

For Moshi Rural, Augustine Mrema, who was seeking re-election, got 725 votes against Lieutenant Perfect Anthony Shayo’s 25.

On August 9, President Ali Hassan Mwinyi appointed seven members of the Electoral Commission after amendments were made on the Constitution about a new system of the electoral body, which had the responsibility of overseeing preparations for the presidential and parliamentary elections of the United Republic.

Among the members appointed was Judge Lameck Mfalila of the Court of Appeal, who later became the chairman of the electoral body. With him were Salehe Abdallah Dahoma of the Zanzibar High Court, Bernadetta Kunambi and Mohamed Faki Mohamed.

The president also appointed National Assembly Secretary Mahmoud Mwindadi to become the director of elections. The electoral body was also charged to deal with complaints on procedures and ethics if they might have arisen after the polls or results of the polls were announced.

On Friday September 14, the CCM National Executive Committee (NEC) held its meeting in Dodoma, where it dwelt on making the final selection of CCM members contesting for parliamentary seats and the House of Representatives.

The meeting ended on September 17, whereby the full list of the selected names of CCM contesting members came to be known after the meeting.

There were a total of 2,946 parliamentary seat and House of Representatives contestants from whom, 2,642 were male while 304 were female. At least 470 aspirants, including 79 women, were chosen by NEC to contest in the October 28, 1990 General Election.

“NEC has made this selection acting upon a mandate issued to it by the country’s Constitution and as well it based on the capability, stand, fame and leadership experience of a contestant,” said a CC member, who doubled as NEC Political Publicity and Public Mobilisation Secretary, Ali Ameir Mohamed.

Ameir, who was also the CCM deputy secretary general, said, “Leaders who were discovered to be formidable and hardened opponents to the CCM politics were not proposed including those, whose membership was questionable.”

On September 19, 1990, the electoral body selected 537 people as supervisors of election campaigns. Their main task was to ensure that campaigns were conducted properly and justice was done without any favouritism. The Electoral Commission also announced that parliamentary seat campaigns for 108 rural constituencies to begin on October 7 while 21 urban constituencies had to wait until October 14. Parliamentary seat campaigns in Tanzania mainland began from October 22 to 27 while those campaigns by contesting members of the House of Representatives kicked-off on October 14 and ended on October 20, whereby Zanzibar’s presidential election and the polls of the House of Representatives were held on October 21.

All the parliamentary seat campaigns in the United Republic ended on October 27 and the following day on October 28 voters cast their votes. Although 7,288,255 registered to vote, 5,195,124 turned up to vote.

Tomorrow we are going to focus on voting, election results, oaths and finally the announcement of the new Cabinet of Ministers of the United Republic.