Tanzania: The 1965 One-Party Elections

Extracted from: "Tanzania" IN Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa (2002), edited by Tom Lodge, Denis Kadima and David Pottie, EISA, 353-354.

The 1965 parliamentary elections were the first elections under "one-party democracy" in which two candidates of the same political party, selected by the party were to compete for a seat. This was after the 1965 interim constitution that officially made Tanzania a one party state. The only political party then was Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). Apart from the interim constitution, the other laws that guided the 1965 elections were the National Assembly (Elections) Act 1964, and its amendment Act of 1965. There was also a report from the election rules committee.

In the elections from 1965-1990, there was little or no voter education in Tanzania. Instead, the campaigns can be characterised as party propaganda for the selected candidates. Voters were sometimes indirectly forced to go and register themselves by; for example, being asked for their voter registration card before being sold necessary commodities like foodstuffs. The single-party structures that existed in Tanzania starting from the cell to the national level ran parallel to the government structures and were well equipped to track most of the people. Under the single party, therefore, registration and voting were not always free political activity.

The process for the selection of the candidates was subject to the following conditions:

• the candidate selection was open to any TANU member (after 1977, CCM members).
• aspiring candidates were required to present themselves before the TANU District Conference (TDC) for selection.
• TANU national executive committee (NEC) would choose two candidates for each constituency from the preference list drawn up by the TDC.
• candidates would share a common platform of campaign meetings and electoral activities organized by the TANU District Executive Committee; and
• the presidential election would be by a direct afflflDative vote for a single candidate.

It is notable that the NEC was not bound to accept the preferential results from the lower bodies. Moreover, the fmal composition of the parliament included additional MPs who did not acquire their seats through the constituency ballot. These included the 17 regional commissioners who were ex officio MPs, 15 MPs chosen by the National Assembly sitting as an Electoral College and up to 10 presidential nominee MPs. In addition, provisions existed for an additional 20 nominated and ex-officio MPs from Zanzibar and 32 members of the Zanzibar Revolutionary Council.

The process for the selection of the presidential candidate was stipulated in the recommendations of the commission on the establishment of a one-party state of 1965. The procedure allowed for only one candidate nominated by an electoral conference composed of TANU (Tanganyika) and ASP (Zanzibar) members. Once the proposed candidate was approved by the electoral conference, registered voters had the opportunity to vote "yes" or "no" to the proposed candidate on polling day.

A total of 801 aspiring candidates were screened by the TDCs allover the country. The only candidate for the presidency was Julius Kambarage Nyerere. The minimum age for voters was 21 with 3.1 million registered out of expected 9 million. The registered voters comprised 32.5% of the population, which then stood at 9.8 million. Voter registration faced several problems. First, there was limited publicity, compounded by a poor communication infrastructure. Second, many tax evaders would not present themselves to the authorities for fear of being charged. Third, the plantation areas held many foreign workers who did not qualify as registered voters, although the regulations were later amended to all those who had stayed for five or more years to register.

Of the 2.6 million votes cast for the presidential seat, Nyerere received 96.5%. The parliamentary elections symbols {either a hoe or a house) were allocated to the candidates for improved ease of identification by illiterate voters.

Campaign meetings, arranged and organised by TANU district executive committees, were muted in that no one was allowed to show signs of favouring either of the candidates presented, but to merely listen to what they had to say. Few questions were allowed. The presidential candidate was selected at the annual conference of the party (or at this stage parties -TANU and ASP).