Tanzania: The 1995 Elections (continued)
Extracted from: "Tanzania" IN Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa (2002), edited by Tom Lodge, Denis Kadima and David Pottie, EISA, 357-360.
Observers and monitors had a reasonable amount of autonomy and freedom in their activities. They could go anywhere except restricted areas such as army camps. The commission issued identification badges and subjected both domestic and international observers to a code of conduct. The monitors and observers were therefore accountable to both the NEC and their sponsor organizations.
On the mainland, only four out of thirteen political parties won seats in the end (see 1995 National Assembly election results for details).
According to the constitutional provision for the reservation of 15% of parliamentary seats for women, an additional 36 women MPs were chosen following the 1995 elections. The seats were distributed on the basis of overall party support in the parliamentary polls on the following basis: CCM 28, CUF 4, NCCR-M 3, CHADEMA 1 and UDP 1. The selection of who goes to parliament through these seats is decided on the basis of an internal balloting process within the political parties themselves. This provision enabled an increase in the number of women in parliament (see also Women in Parliament, 1961-2000).
In the presidential poll, although the CCM candidate, Benjamin Mkapa won the race, his percentage support was over 20% lower than overall CCM support in the parliamentary elections (see 1995 Presidential election results for details).
The Tanzania Election Monitoring Committee (TEMCO) issued a pronouncement after the 1995 election results saying that there were five types of certificates that could be awarded to the. election managers in the constituencies: a) clean, free and fair certificates, b) qualified free and fair certificates, c) free but not fair certificates, d) unfree and unfair certificates, and e) elections totally mismanaged.
The pronouncements varied by constituency, but very few were declared "clean, free and fair". However, when one compares the general political context of the 1995 elections to previous elections conducted under the one-party system, the assessment is more favourable.
Nevertheless, even with the introduction of a multiparty system the CCM continued to enjoy considerable advantage over the other new parties. Thus, a common criticism of the 1995 was that they were free but not fair. They were deemed unfair owing to several aspects of the incumbent CCM's enduring power and access to public resources. These included the use of state resources in its campaign activities; the general legacy of a state bureaucracy loyal to the CCM; a National Electoral Commission which was dependent on the (CCM) government for funding; CCM ownership of such facilities as stadiums which the CCM would not allow opposition parties to use for rallies; and finally, a distribution of the public funding to political parties that resulted in the CCM receiving the largest share.
The verdict was therefore that the playing field was not level. Others concluded that the National Electoral Commission had badly mismanaged the elections. Some international observers, for example, noted that they never had seen such chaotic elections. In some constituencies a re-run of the elections was necessary and in others the counting took a week instead of a day and in others still there was an insufficient supply of ballot papers with extensive delays throughout.