Party defections and their impact on CCM, opposition

Dodoma. After 27 years of one-party rule in mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, it was a huge task for new political parties to build and strengthen themselves to face CCM in presidential, parliament and councillorship elections.

It is clear that the infancy of the opposition parties relied heavily on a large wave of politicians who had different views within the one-party rule. They had to defect and join forces to bolster the opposition against the behemoth--CCM in the polls.

Statements of the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, about the importance of having many political parties, seemingly boosted their confidence. Those who disagreed with CCM now had the right of joining new parties where they could air their ideas freely.

And that is how it was. After Augustine Mrema, who was minister for Labour, Youth and Sports, had joined NCCR-Mageuzi and given the opportunity to run for presidency, he influenced many members of the public, not only from his campaign rallies, but also from the streets through which he passed and helped the opposition to get Members of Parliament (MPs).

The opposition continued to benefit from CCM politicians in every General Election, although in 2020 there was no major wave of defections except only one, Mr Bernard Membe, who joined ACT-Wazalendo after being stripped of CCM membership, with the trend changing after several MPs and councillors joined or returned to CCM on questionable grounds of “support the efforts”.

However, CCM, for their part, saw that the defections helped them to strengthen themselves and realise their shortcomings.

Tanganyika gained independence in December 9, 1961 with a multi-party system as it was in Zanzibar, but in 1965 the Constitution was amended to introduce a one-party system, meaning Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) for mainland Tanzania and Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) for Zanzibar, that was one year after Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged on April 26, 1964 and to form the United Republic of Tanzania.

On February 5, 1977, Tanu and ASP merged to form Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and since then the party had the sole right to conduct political activities within the United Republic of Tanzania.

But in 1992, as the revolutionary movement continued to spread in Europe, Tanzania was in time to reintroduce the multi-party system, and thus the first general election of the multi-party system was held in 1995.

By the time of the election, 11 parties had permanent registration and were, therefore, allowed to participate. The parties that received permanent registration in 1993 are CUF, Chadema, UMD, NCCR-Mageuzi, NLD, UPDP, NRA, TLP and TADEA.

Other parties were registered later including UDP which was permanently registered in 1994. CCM was the first party to have been registered in 1992.

The defections of politicians began to be felt in 1995 during the first multi-party general election in 1995. CCM nominated Benjamin Mkapa to vie for the presidency. The Opposition were hunting for a candidate who could face a candidate who could be campaigned for by the Father of the Nation.

That is when NCCR-Mageuzi picked Augustine Mrema, who once was Home Affairs minister who left CCM a year later after being shown the door.

The calculations of NCCR-Mageuzi went well because the former Vunjo MP was a huge attraction for citizens who reached the point of pushing his car as he passed through the streets.

The citizens flocked the NCCR-Mageuzi rallies and made the party appear to be the strongest of the opposition parties.

Mr Mrema was famous due to his impressive work performance, including resolving marital disputes, defending the weak, encountering negligent workers, corruption, the way he resolved the crisis of the Arumeru Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT), which were the things that prompted President Mwinyi to appoint him deputy prime minister, a docket that constitutionally did not exist.

He also dealt with a scandal that was facing a prominent foreign businessman, who owned several sisal estates, Vidyadhar Girdharlal (V.G.) Chavda, whose saga caused Mrema to publicly blame the government for its decision over the saga.

Mr Mrema was received joyously by the opposition and his rallies were attended by a huge number of citizens who also pushed his car.

In the same year of 1995, Mr Mrema enabled NCCR-Mageuzi to garner 1.8 million presidential votes with 19 MPs, while Chadema won four seats.

In 2000 Prof Ibrahim Lipumba, chairman of CUF, contested the presidency against Mr Mkapa as CUF was strong by fielding Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad, a politician who once held the post of Chief Minister but experienced a turmoil within CCM before joining the movement while in the opposition.

In 2000, there was no huge wave of politicians, especially bigots, defecting from CCM and joining the opposition. But, the opposition increased the number of elected MPs from 23 to 26, an increase of three MPs. But in 2005 the opposition increased the number of MPs to 41, although presidential votes for the opposition remained at 1.3 million.

Dr Wilbroad Slaa, a politician who defected from CCM after his name was screened in the Mbulu parliamentary race in 1995, led Chadema in 2010. Chadema was formed by politicians, lawyers, journalists, activists and youths who actively participated in the multi-party movement even before the constitution was amended. Dr Slaa contested the presidency against Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, who was CCM’s presidential flagbearer.

That year, Dr Slaa enabled the opposition to increase the number of presidential votes to 2.27 million, while the number of opposition MPs doubled to reach 84 in total, CUF 48 and Chadema 36.

The biggest wave of defections from CCM in the history of the opposition was in 2015 when former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa of CCM crossed over to Chadema after his name was removed from the presidential race. At Chadema, Lowassa was given the opportunity to continue his “Journey of Hope” to run for the presidency against John Magufuli of CCM.

The wave, which included two former prime ministers, including Frederick Sumaye, ministers and their deputies, MPs, CCM regional chairpersons, secretaries and other cadres, enabled the opposition to garner 6.07 million presidential votes, including winning 112 seats.

However, the circumstances of the last General Election limited the ability of the opposition to increase their seats, with presidential votes plummeting to 1.9 million.

As the defections increased the strength of the opposition in Parliament, 30 years after the reintroduction of the multi-party system, CCM has not been overwhelmed in presidential races although the opposition have been complaining about vote rigging in every General Election, including the 2020 polls.

Prof Malima and Shibuda

Another party that got a CCM cadre was NRA after former Finance Minister, Prof Kighoma Malima, decided to join the party and ran for the presidency in 1995, but had no influence.

The ADA-TADEA party also fielded John Shibuda to run for the presidency in 2020, but he could not influence a huge number of voters, despite his popularity since he was a CCM MP and later a Chadema MP.

However, conflicts within the opposition have been weakening their strength. NCCR- Mageuzi lost its strongholds after a major crisis that occurred within the party in the late 1990s, while CUF lost its after a crisis that resulted from the 2015 polls, with other parties failing to build themselves due to various factors.

“The current politicians who did well in the reforms (opposition) are those who came from CCM. They have made a huge contribution to the opposition,” says Mr Ado Shaibu, the ACT-Wazalendo secretary general.

Mr Shaibu says it is impossible to prevent politicians from CCM to joining the opposition and vice versa for the opposition, explaining, that is a common thing that has happened in the last three decades of multi-party politics in the country.

“However, we have got a lesson from Lowassa and Membe. The lesson we have got is that opposition parties must prepare their cadres to qualify for running for the presidency because that is a sensitive position. To continue relying on politicians from CCM is gambling. This is because we don’t know what they will do when their anger eases,” he says. Shaibu says despite contributing significantly to the opposition, CCM defectors have reduced their efforts.

“The one who vies for the presidentcy is taken across the country, and then he leaves. He really makes us go far back. We have learned from Mrema (1995), Lowassa (2015) and Membe (2020). Many of them arev back-pedalling, ”says Shaibu.

However, James Mbatia says the defections are due to the citizen’s failure to prioritise the ideologies of a party.

“In our politics, people still believe more in individuals than in ideology,” said Mbatia, chairman of NCCR-Mageuzi during an interview with The Citizen.

“And the issue is historic. In 1995, there was somebody called James Paul Ndobo who defected from CCM to joining the opposition. He contested the Musoma Rural seat. Mwalimu (the First President of Tanzania, Julius) Nyerere said publicly that he would vote for Mkapa in the the presidential election, but would vote for Ndobo in parliamentary elections. And Ndobo won the seat.

“Nyerere had that assertion. And even some politicians who defected from CCM like (former Bunda MP, Stephen) Wasira, defeated Warioba in the 1995 polls. ”

However, Mbatia says the victory was due to a bad constitution, explaining that district commissioners, who were chairpersons of defense and security committees in the areas, were the ones who guarded the elections while they were CCM cadres.

Commenting on the defections, the secretary of the Department of Politics and International Relations, Ngemela Lubinga, said the move helped CCM to know its shortcomings and thus strengthened itself.

“First, it was their democratic right to join any party because they saw the shortcomings within CCM, thinking they could fix those weakenesses while they were out of the party,” said Lubinga.

“They tried to talk about those shortcomings while out of CCM that realized that there were problems and thus it addressed them and strengthened itself further.

“CCM does not consider its defectors as bad members because everyone has the right to express the shortcomings of the party so long as they do not violate the country’s laws. If people are against you, you need to find the techniques of strengthening yourself.

However, Lubinga says the defectors have done nothing meaningful.

“They realized that the shortcomings they were seeing were not intentional,” he says.

Lubinga says despite the fact that those who defected were able to correct themselves and become strong, some decided to rejoin the party and others forged friendship with CCM while out of it.

“People like (TLP chairman, Augustine) Mrema have forged friendship with CCM while they are out of CCM. There are many of them, “he said, referring to the former Vunjo MP who in the last polls supported the CCM presidential candidate, John Magufuli despite TLP fielding Macmillan Lyimo to run for the top political job in the country.

As Shaibu said, the politicians who defected from CCM had helped to strengthen the opposition parties, but, according to Lubinga, they also helped CCM to correct itself after the defectors spoke publicly about the flaws they saw within the ruling party.