CCM breaks silence on Lowassa’s decamping

CCM Urban regional  chairman Borafya Silima Juma speaks to journalists at the CCM Kisiwandui Office in Zanzibar yesterday. With him are party officials. PHOTO| CORRESPONDENT 

In Summary

Speaking at CCM headquarters in Kisiwandui, National Executive Committee member Shamsi Vuai Nahodha criticised Mr Lowassa’s comment that the process to pick its presidential candidate was unfair

By Salma Said, The Citizen Correspondent

Zanzibar. CCM has broken its silence over former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa’s defection to the opposition, saying it is not shaken by his decision.

Addressing a news conference that was beamed live by Zanzibar Broadcasting Corporation, party officials hit back at Mr Lowassa and said they were optimistic that the party would garner a landslide victory despite his exit.

Speaking at CCM headquarters in Kisiwandui, National Executive Committee member Shamsi Vuai Nahodha criticised Mr Lowassa’s comment that the process to pick its presidential candidate was unfair.

Speaking earlier this week after defecting to the opposition, Mr Lowassa said he decided to ditch the ruling party because of the blatant disregard of the CCM constitution, regulations and rules during the CCM presidential nomination that handed victory to Works Minister John Magufuli.

“What happened was pure rape of democracy because they made sure that my name did not appear with those which were submitted to the party’s Central Committee,” he said.

Yesterday, Mr Nahodha said Mr Lowassa’s remarks were not true. He added: “The assertion that the party chairman came with his own list does not hold water because the party’s Central Committee (CC) followed all the prescribed procedures as it has always been in previous nominations.”

Mr Nahodha, who is Zanzibar’s former chief minister, said he was surprised that opposition leaders who had attacked Mr Lowassa and called him a corrupt leader had now made a U-turn and were praising him and declaring him clean. 

“CCM members have never attacked Mr Lowassa and I wonder how the opposition agreed to have him in their camp,” Mr Nahodha said. “I want to state clearly that CCM is here to stay despite his exit.”

Zanzibar’s minister for Water, Energy and Land, Mr Ramadhan Abdallah Shaaban, echoed Mr Nahodha’s sentiments: “When you support someone and later realise that the public doubts him, you have no choice but to opt for someone else.”

According to Mr Shaaban, the party’s CC was right to axe Mr Lowassa.

Even as CCM members came out yesterday to attack him, Mr Lowassa said on Thursday that they were wasting their time. Soon after collecting Chadema presidential nomination forms, Mr Lowassa took a swipe at his foes in the ruling party who had gone on the attack since he defected to the Opposition on Monday. “I want to clearly warn those who have been attacking me,” Mr Lowassa said. “I want them to understand that they are wasting their time.”

At yesterday’s press conference, virtually all CCM cadres dismissed him as a power-hungry person. On Thursday, Mr Lowassa said he would not abuse his opponents and promised civilised and clean campaigns.

Reading an eight-page statement yesterday, CCM Regional Secretary Mohammed Omar Nyawenga said Mr Lowassa had many supporters in Zanzibar but they would no longer support him after he crossed over to the opposition. “We have no internal grudges with him but we want to assure him that he will lose his popularity because he was popular through CCM,” he added.

Mr Lowassa has repeatedly said he hates poverty and that was why he had decided to vie for the presidency--to fight poverty. “If anyone out there wants leadership by glorifying poverty,” he has been quoted saying, “he or she is totally wrong.”

CCM Regional Chairman Borafya Silima, a close ally who helped out Mr Lowassa when he was looking for CCM guarantors in his presidential bid before decamping to the opposition, said Mr Lowassa’s decision was tantamount to political suicide.

“His decision to defect from CCM was a sacrifice,” said Mr Silima, who organised yesterday’s press conference.  “By joining the opposition, he has also sacrificed himself.”