Tanzania: Ruling party wins Igunga election as opposition contests results
By Shout-Africa Correspondent, Dar es Salaam – The Tanzanian ruling party, CCM, has won the Igunga Parliamentary by-election by a close margin from first runners, opposition Chadema in a closely contested poll.
Announcing the results yesterday in Igunga, Tabora in the Western party of the country, the returning officer, Mr. Protace Magayane, said Dr. Dalay Peter Kafumu of CCM got 26,484 votes while Chadema’s Peter Kashindye followed closely with 23,260. Leopold Mahona from the Civic United Front (CUF) who was earlier considered a threat to CCM was far trailing in the third place with only 2,104.
At the announcing of the results, Chadema candidate and his leaders could not attend in a show of protesting the validity of the results. On his part the Secretary General of CCM, Wilson Mukama, said he was pleased with the victory but decried violent politics. The CUF candidate also lamented over gutter politics in the election but ignoring any move to appeal against the results.
The opposition has generally accused the ruling party of using corruption by bribing the poor voters in the villages and using police threats. The post went vacant after CCM’s Rostam Aziz resigned citing what he called “gutter politics” within the ruling party.
