Tanzania: The 1990 Elections

Extracted from: "Tanzania" IN Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa (2002), edited by Tom Lodge, Denis Kadima and David Pottie, EISA, 355.

Although he had not contested the national presidency in the 1985 elections, Nyerere had retained the CCM party chairmanship. By 1990 Nyerere relinquished his party post, thereby enabling Mwinyi to add the second 'hat"' of party chairman to his presidential post.

Meanwhile, debate about the relative merits of multi-party democracy or the one-party system had already engulfed political circles. Nyerere's role in this debate was important given that he had raised the possibility of introducing multi-party politics. Tanzania had also undergone further severe economic shocks with the adoption of the structural adjustment policies advocated by the World Bank and the IMF and the general call for further reforms overshadowed the political debate. Out of a total of 7 million registered voters, 5 223 597 cast their ballots, with 5 001 977 yes votes for Mwinyi and 114 517 no votes. There were 130 parliamentary constituencies.