Tanzanian Election Begins, Likely to Hand President Kikwete Second Term

Tanzanians began voting in an election that will probably hand President Jakaya Kikwete a second five-year term to implement policies aimed at strengthening East Africa’s second-biggest economy.
Kikwete, who leads the Chama cha Mapinduzi party, has the support of about 71.2 percent of voters, according to an opinion poll conducted by the University of Dar es Salaam this month. The 60-year-old leader is trailed by five other candidates, including Wilbrod Slaa of the Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo party, his closest challenger.
An economist who served for a decade as foreign minister prior to taking office in 2005, Kikwete’s policies have helped generate average annual growth of 6.7 percent, according to International Monetary Fund data. Kikwete has made less progress on dealing with graft, a key platform in his 2005 campaign, with Tanzania’s ranking falling to 116th from 93rd on an index of the world’s most corrupt countries compiled by Berlin-based Transparency International.
“There’s too much corruption,” Juma Andrew, a 35-year-old taxi driver, said in an interview from Dar es Salaam, the country’s commercial hub, before the election. Rivals are “fresh, but they aren’t ready to govern.” Voting stations opened just after 7 a.m. local time in the city.
Kikwete has pledged to maintain fiscal policies that are expected to drive the economic growth rate to 6.5 percent this year and 6.7 percent in 2011, the IMF said on Oct. 6. That compares with average growth rates of 5 percent and 5.5 percent expected in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa in the same periods.

Graft Cases

During his first five-year term, Kikwete increased spending on roads and energy projects, using higher tax revenue and donor funding, while keeping in check government borrowing.
Critics say Kikwete’s record on fighting corruption has been marred by a failure to prosecute graft cases.
In January 2008, Kikwete fired Central Bank Governor Daudi Ballali following an irregular-payments scandal over which Prime Minister Edward Lowassa resigned. In a separate incident that year, Andrew Chenge stepped down as infrastructure development minister after being investigated in a bribery probe involving BAE Systems Plc. Ballali died in May 2008 and no government ministers were prosecuted in either of the cases.
Donors to Tanzania announced in May they planned to cut their pledges in the 2010-11 fiscal year by about $220 million to $534 million.
Tanzania is Africa’s fourth-largest gold exporter after South Africa, Ghana and Mali. Companies including Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the precious metal, and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. have mines in the country.

Zanzibar Clashes

The East African nation is also the continent’s fifth- biggest exporter of coffee, after Ethiopia, Uganda, Ivory Coast and Cameroon, and the world’s sole source of tanzanite, a violet-blue precious stone.
Today’s vote will elect a president for the union of Tanzania, which includes the mainland as well as the Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar. There will be a separate ballot to choose Zanzibar’s president and parliament.
On Zanzibar, clashes followed the last two elections in 2000 and 2005, after the opposition accused the island’s president, Amani Abeid Karume, and his CCM party of vote- rigging. A new power-sharing arrangement approved by Zanzibar residents in July eased concerns that there will be further clashes during this election.
About 20 million people are registered to vote in the elections. Voting stations are scheduled to close at 4 p.m. local time. Final results are expected on Nov. 2 or Nov. 3.