Tanzania can go Gambia style: experts

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s ruling party can lose the presidency just like it happened in Gambia where the opposition beat President Yahya Jammeh, some Tanzanian analysts have said.

They say it is possible for Tanzania’s opposition to trounce CCM in a free and fair election.

Friday’s presidential election result in Gambia shocked Africa as the flagbearer of opposition political parties in Gambia, Mr Adama Barrow, 51, defeated President Jammeh, 51 who later conceded defeat.

Political analysts have told The Citizen that Tanzania has a lot to learn from Gambia’s election.

Mr Barrow, a former security guard in a UK store, was on Friday declared by Gambia’s Electoral Commission a new president with 45.5 per cent of the vote against Mr Jammeh’s 36.7 per cent.

Mr Jammeh, ruled Gambia for 22 years, after he overthrew Sir Dawda Jawara in 1994.

Mr Jammeh boasted that he would rule for “one billion years”, if God willed.

A senior political science lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, Dr Bakari Mohammed, said governments should learn that when the public are tired they do not care the qualities of replacements as long as they are able to stand on stages and lead them.

According to him, politics is not about how someone is educated but how that person is connected with the majority of people, able to speak their language and is concerned about their problems.

“So what Gambians have shown is that they were tired of Jammeh’s regime and want change. Mr Barrow seized the opportunity.”

An Open University of Tanzania Political Science and Public Administration lecturer, Dr Emmanuel Mallya, said Africa was getting a test of democracy and political maturity. He said long-serving leaders had either been stepping down or voted out.

He gave examples of Presidents Joseph Kabila of DRC and José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola who both have declared to step aside.

According to him, the opposition or alternative parties, should know that they have powers to triumph over the ruling regimes as long as they have common goals.

“No one was born to rule forever,” said Dr Mallya.

Prof Kitila Mkumbo of the University of Dar es Salaam noted that it should not be taken as something odd for President Jammeh to concede defeat.

“I wonder why we are making a big deal for him by conceding defeat. He lost outright.”