Chadema chairman Mbowe fails to defend Hai seat
Chadema's national chairman, Freeman Mbowe
What you need to know:
- Mbowe who was the head of opposition in the past parliament failed to cast his vote over what he said were security concerns after his hotel was raided by unknown assailants.
Dar es Salaam. National chairman for opposition Chadema, Freeman Mbowe, became the first high profile casualty on Thursday after he lost his parliamentary seat in Wednesday's General Election.
The results, announced at around 3:00am on Thursday declared CCM's candidate, Mr Sashisha Mafue as Member of Parliament (MP) elect for Hai Constituency which had been held by Mr Mbowe for a total of 15 years.
The 59-year old opposition politician was first elected Hai MP in 2000. He garnered 64.5 percent of the vote, which was the highest percentage of votes won among constituencies with opposition MPs at that time.
In 2005, Mbowe represented his party as its presidential candidate and lost to CCM's Jakaya Kikwete.
He went back to Hai in 2010 and won for two five-year terms consecutively.
But announcing the results of the October 28, 2020 polls, the returning officer for Hai, Yohana Elisha said Mr Mbowe polled 27,684 votes against 89,786 votes for CCM's Sashisha Mafue.
ACT-Wazalendo's Mbaruku Mhina polled 315 votes.
Mr Mbowe has not yet commented on the poll results but on Wednesday, he alleged that his two bodyguards were 'abducted' by a group of gangsters and were only released hours later after being tortured
The Hai District Commissioner who doubles as the head of defence and security in the district, Mr Lengai Ole Sabaya however trashed the allegations, saying they deserved to be ignored.
According to Mr Mbowe, the alleged abductors raided his (Mbowe's) Aishi Protea Hotel at Machame in two vehicles and took the opposition leader's bodyguards away.
This happened at a time when Mr Mbowe and his followers were putting final preparations to the exercise of distributing the opposition party's election agents.
