That year his name was eliminated in the early stages as Benjamin Mkapa emerged the winner from the list of three finalists who included Jakaya Kikwete and Cleopa Msuya.
Dar es Salaam. Edward Lowassa has never hidden his presidential ambitions since he first took the nomination forms in 1995.
That year his name was eliminated in the early stages as Benjamin Mkapa emerged the winner from the list of three finalists who included Jakaya Kikwete and Cleopa Msuya.
In 2005 Mr Lowassa chose not to contest the presidenital nomination in CCM. He campaigned for President Jakaya Kikwete. Mr Kikwete won the nomination and the presidency and Mr Lowassa became the Prime Minister.
As he resigned two years later in 2008 in the wake of the Richmond scandal, some comentators believed his presidential ambitions were done with.
But it seems they did not. Details that he was mounting a presidential campaign plans continued to fuel the rumour mills, the social media and has since become a staple in the Swahili press. Aided by a presumed big amount of wealth that Mr Lowassa is believed to have he has been the master of behind the scenes campaign, building coalitions and networks of supproters and influential figures within the party to make sure that he clinches the nomiaton when time comes. He has denied that he is wealthy, saying the money people think he has belongs to his friends.
Since 2009 some of Mr Lowassa’s “networks” have come out in the open with groups calling themselves “Team Lowassa” and “Lowassa camp” springing up.
Becasue of premature campaignin Mr Lowassa was barred, together with other presidential aspirants, from involving himself in activities that can transalted as campaigning or from calling and holding meetings of supporters for one year from February 2015. His “political imprisonment” is supposed to end this month.
And as six months remain to the General Election, the talk of Mr Lowassa’s presidential ambitions, even as it excites some, has also caused a thrill and tension within the party.
The Lowassa factor in the CCM presidential nomination process was fuelled by a survey conducted by the Twaweza organisation in November last year that showed Mr Lowassa was a leading candidate both within the CCM nomination process and in the General Election.
The survey, which showed that if the elections were held that November CCM would have won with a reduced margin, also showed that Lowassa was the candidate that was most prefered to carry out CCM’s flag. The survey was widely criticised by independent analysts and some CCM cadres. But it showed that there was no clear front runner because despite his favorability Mr Lowassa was only prefered by 17 per cent of all those surveyd for the CCM nomination.
He was followed by Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda (14 per cent) and John Magufuli (5 per cent).
In the General Election also Lowassa emerged as the most prefered candidate by the respondents with only 13 per cent of respondents said if elections were held in November last year they would have voted for Lowassa, compared to 12 per cent for Pinda and 11 per cent for Chadema’s Wilbrod Slaa.
Early this month it was reported that a number of legislators mobilised themselves and went to Mr Lowassa to ask him to take CCM presidential nomination forms. Some of the MPs repoted to have taken party in this exercise denied the reports.
And last week a member of the CCM National Executive Committee (NEC) Dr Raphael Chegeni was reported by the local media saying that he has been sent by CCM supporters from the Lake Zone to request Lowassa to take the CCM presidential nomination forms. The impression Dr Chegeni, a former Busega MP, gave was that Lowassa is the most popular politician in the Sukuma land, a zone comprising about four regions, with a population of slightly of more than five million people. Efforts to get Mr Lowassa to comment on the article proved futile. But his spokesperson, Abubakari Liongo, denied that his boss has formed campaign networks to enable him clinch the CCM nomination. He said most of the groups or even individuals claiming to support Mr Lowassa do that of their own accord, and without Mr Lowassa’s knowledge.
“I have seen even commercial motorcycle operators (bodaboda) with T-Shirts and posters supporting Mr Lowassa. We do not know who these people are. We did not send them. The time for campaigning is not yet,” Mr Liongo notes.
He acknowledge that Mr Lowassa receives a lot of invitations from religious and other groups to speak and lead Harambee campaigns, which shows he is the man of the people. Mr Lowassa’s popular appeal, whether genuine or feigned, doesn’t seem to reciprocate itself within the CCM machinery.
Top ruling party leadership have issued statements at various occasions showing that those CCM members who have already expressed their desire to seek the party’s nomination, including Mr Lowassa, might be wasting their time.
Early this month CCM chairman President Kikwete hinted, during a CCM’s anniversary ceremony, that the credible CCM presidential candidate has not yet come out. Mr Kikwete’s statement left commentators wondering whether he or the party have a secret succession plan, with the right candidate, who has some special qualifications.
Nape Nnauye, CCM Ideology and Publicity Secretary said, when he visited Mwananchi Communications limited recently that the presidential candidate that CCM would nominate later this year will have to be a clean man with no corruption scandals tagged behind his imaged.
“We will field a candidate who does not need cleaning to rid him of corruption allegations. We want a spotless candidate,” Mr Nnauye noted. He was seen as taking a jibe at Mr Lowassa who was tainted by the Richmond corruption scandal that led to his resignation as Prime Minister in 2008.
Independent commentators are divided over the Lowassa factor in CCM’s presidential politics.
While some say the party could risk be divided if Mr Lowassa would not be the flag bearer, others say the man is beyond redemption due to the Richmond corruption scandal. They also say he is not charismatic enough to cause tremors in CCM if they fail to nominate him.
Prof Kitila Mkumbo from the Dar es Salaam University College of Education says if CCM does not nominate Lowassa and if the man decides to quit the party, it might lead to a crisis with the party.
“CCM might be split over Lowassa because of his popularity among CCM supporters and outside the party,” he noted, adding that statements such as that given by Mr Nnauye could only serve to increase tension within the party well ahead of the nomination process. No date has been set yet for the nomination process but the exercise is expected to start in August, according to CCM’s secretariat.
Prof George Shumbusho from Mzumbe univeristy thinks differently. He says despite his popularity Lowassa is not that powerful enough to cause a rift within CCM if not nominated.
More powerful politicians left the part, Prof Shumbusho notes, and the party remained intact. “There is a politician known as Agustino Mrema. When he left CCM he was a more power politician. And the party remained intact,” he said adding;
“I think the talk of CCM getting affected if Mr Lowassa is not nominated and leaves the party is fuelled by supporters who use fear tacticts to force the party to nominate him,” Prof Shumbusho noted.
A prominent activist Dr Hellen Kijo Bisimba says the talk of who gets nominated by CCM is irrelevant becasue, for one, the party never cares who it nominates knowing that it always wins elections.
“Even this issue of having a mystery candidate who would be Mr Clean is largely exagerated. How many clean, credible CCM politicians are there? I do not know if Mr Lowassa deserves nomination or not. The questions to ask ourselves are whether he really is the kind of man who can fight corruption in government and develop the country. Being popular only is not enough,” Dr Kijo Bisimba who is executive director of Legal and Human Rights Centre noted.
Sheikh Rajab Katimba spokerspeson of the Tanzania Muslim Communities and Institutions Council took a swipe at Lowassa saying he was a divisive figure who could tarnish CCM’s image if nominated by the party.
“Who is Lowassa to cause such hullabaloo in the party? Why should he cause such tension within the party? All I know is that he is indiscipline and that is why he was punished for premature campaign. I really understand why President Kikwete issued a statement saying there are better candidates out there. Let’s wait and see?” Sheikh Katimba noted.
