Major issues that defined the 2005 general election

Dar es Salaam. The 2005 General Election was planned to be held on Sunday, October 30, that year, but it went awry after Jumbe Rajab Jumbe, the running mate of the presidential candidate of the opposition Chadema party), died on Wednesday, October 26, 2005, just four days before the day of the polls and it completely changed the political history of Tanzania.

Following the death of Jumbe, the presidential, parliamentary and councillorship polls had to be halted. President Benjamin Mkapa, who was due to retire in early November, was now forced to continue being in office until December of that year.

After a lengthy meeting of the commissioners of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), which was held on Thursday, October 27 at the NEC’s offices in Ghana Street, Dar es Salaam, NEC Chairman Judge Lewis Makame told reporters that the elections, which were to be held in October 30, would now be held on December 18 of 2005 and that in the run-up to the polls, the presidential candidates’ campaigns would be suspended to allow Chadema to find another running mate.

Chadema was given 21 days to submit the name of the person to replace the late Jumbe for the sake of nomination on November 18 and the campaigns of the presidential aspirants were programmed to begin from November 19 to December 17.

The decision was based on the Electoral Act No. 1 of 1985 which specifies the procedures to be followed in the event of the death of a presidential candidate or a running mate. Section 35 A 1 (b) of the Act and its amendments until April 30, 2005, it stated:-

“At any time after 4pm on the day of the nominations of the candidates in the event of the death of the presidential candidate or any other running mate: NEC will immediately, through an announcement on the Government Gazette, announce another day of nomination in not less than 21 days in order to allow the relevant party to pick another presidential candidate or a running mate another electoral processes will start anew, there will be no nomination of presidential candidates or running mates for other parties if they will be there.”

Also, a sub-clause 2 stated: “After the announcement of the new day of the nominations of candidates in this clause, the National Electoral Commission shall allocate another voting day for electing president and the relevant procedures will start anew, except that there will be no need of nominating of other presidential candidates if they are there.”

However, the elections of Zanzibar’s president and Members of the House of Representatives proceeded as planned. If the presidential, parliamentary and councillorship elections on the side of the United Republic had not been postponed, then it would have been the first time for Zanzibar’s General Election and that of the United Republic of Tanzania to be held in one day.

According to the former Deputy Secretary General of Chadema on the Mainland, Jumbe passed away at 3:45pm on October 26 at the Hindu Mandal Hospital in Dar es Salaam where he was receiving treatment. The late Jumbe became ill on September 26 of that year when he was in his party’s campaign activities in regions.

Jumbe, who was suffering from heart complications, was initially discharged from the hospital after getting well. However, a few days later his health changed and on October 1, he was rushed to hospital and hospitalized for another time until his death. He was laid to rest on October 27 at 4pm at the Tandika-Kubwa Cemetery in Bagamoyo District, Coast Region.

Although the polls were postponed in mainland Tanzania, on the Zanzibar side, a senior information officer of the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC), Idrisa Jecha, said Zanzibar’s General Election would be held as planned. He said Jumbe’s death could not cause ZEC to postpone the POLLS because ZEC’s performance had nothing to do with the Union polls.

The polls were held on October 30 as planned. Two days later, on November 1, ZEC declared Abeid Karume the winner of the presidential election.

NEC chairman Masauni Yusuf Masauni declared Karume the winner of the election after garnering 239,832 votes and was followed closely by his challenger, Maalim Seif Shariff Hamad of the opposition CUF, who collected 207,773 votes.

The presidential candidates in Zanzibar were Amani Abeid Karume of CCM, who collected 239,832 votes, equivalent to 53.18 percent; Seif Shariff Hamad (CUF), who garnered 207,773 votes, equivalent to 46.07 percent; Haji Mussa Kitole (Jahazi Asilia), who bagged 2,110 votes, equivalent to 0.48 percent; Abdallah Ali Abdallah (DP), who collected 509 votes, equivalent to 0.11 percent; Simai Abdulrahman Abdallah (NRA), who won 449 votes, equivalent to 0.10 percent and Mariam Omar (SAU), who collected 335 votes, equivalent to 0.07 percent.

Maalim Seif got 46.1 percent of all valid votes cast and set a record of being defeated three times consecutively in the presidential elections. Despite CUF declaring not to recognise the results, Amani Karume was sworn-in as president of Zanzibar for another five-year presidential term in a ceremony held at the Hall of the House of Representatives in Zanzibar Town.

On Friday, November 11, 19 members of CUF in the House of Representatives (HoR) boycotted for the first time President Karume’s speech which he gave in the HoR as the implementation of the party’s decision not to recognize the Zanzibar’s election results. As Karume was sworn-in in Zanzibar, in Dar es Salaam NEC rescheduled the date of the Presidential, Parliamentary and Councillorship elections. Earlier, NEC had postponed the elections from October 30 to December 18 following the death of Chadema’s running mate, but on November 2, Judge Makame issued a statement on other changes made by NEC. Instead of the elections to be held on Sunday, December 18, they were now set for Wednesday, December 14.

On November 13, Chadema nominated Anna Valerian Komu (55) as the running mate to replace Jumbe. Anna’s name was approved by the party’s Central Committee which met at the Court Yard Hotel in Dar es Salaam under its chairman, Freeman Mbowe, who was also the party’s candidate for Tanzania’s presidential election.

The number of presidential candidates increased further in the 2005 polls as the number of registered voters was 16,401,694. However, the presidential candidate of CCM, Jakaya Kikwete, emerged the winner of the election.

The presidential aspirants in the election were Jakaya Kikwete (CCM), who collected 9,123,952 votes (80.28 percent), Prof Ibrahim Lipumba (CUF) with 1,327,125 votes (11.68 percent), Freeman Mbowe (Chadema) with 668,756 votes (5.88 percent), Augustine Mrema ( TLP) 84,901 votes (0.75 percent), Sengondo Mvungi (NCCR-Mageuzi) votes 55,819 (0.49 percent), Christopher Mtikila (DP) with 31,083 votes (0.27 percent), Emmanuel Makaidi (NLD) 21,574 votes (0.19 percent), Anna Senkoro ( PPT-Development), who bagged 18,783 votes (0.17 percent), Leonard Shayo (MakiniI), who got 17,070 votes (0.15 percent) and Paul Kyara (SAU) who garnered 16,414 votes (0.14 percent).

Kikwete was sworn-in on 21, 2005 as president of the fourth Phase Government of Tanzania.