With next year's general election looming, Tanzanian authorities
have found themselves grappling with an emerging political force,
ACT-Wazalendo, a small opposition party which has been boosted by the
defection of Zanzibar's most prominent opposition figure.
Seif
Shariff Hamad, a stalwart of Zanzibar politics for the past three
decades, defected from the Civic United Front (CUF) on March 18 in
protest against the High Court's dismissal of his petition challenging
the legitimacy of Prof Ibrahim Lipumba’s chairmanship of the party.
As
hordes of CUF supporters joined Mr Hamad on the journey across the
political divide, the move was widely seen as a masterstroke by
ACT-Wazalendo, and especially its leader Zitto Kabwe, strengthening its
political base in a key part of the country ahead of the 2020 general
election and this year’s civic election.
CUF branches
in Zanzibar and Pemba, a CUF stronghold, are being turned into
ACT-Wazalendo branches, with the CUF protesting the takeover of its
properties.
The ensuing wrangle appears to lay the
foundation for Mr Kabwe to challenge President John Magufuli and the
ruling CCM party's virtual stranglehold on the top seat, in tandem with
Mr Hamad launch of a campaign for the Zanzibari presidency.
Mr Hamad has been defeated in five bids since the first multiparty election in 1995. Is this his big break?
But the Registrar of Political Parties has come in to rain on
the Zitto-Seif parade, threatening ACT-Wazalendo with deregistration
over alleged violation of the Political Parties Act.
In
a March 25 letter signed deputy registrar Sisty Nyahoza, the Registrar
of Political Parties Francis Mutungi listed several offences, including
pro-Hamad supporters in Pemba Island burning CUF party flags and
replacing them with ACT-Wazalendo’s flags.
"The action of burning political party flags is in violation of section 11C of the Political Parties Act," the letter said.
An
amended version of the clause passed a couple of months ago says
convicted offenders are liable to fines of between Tsh1 million ($432.8)
and Tsh5 million ($2,164) or 6-12 months' imprisonment.
Mr
Mutungi also cited a video clip doing the rounds on social media that
shows alleged pro-Hamad supporters shouting “Takbir!” while hoisting the
ACT-Wazalendo flags. He said this was in violation of other clauses in
the legislation that prohibit political parties from promoting religious
biases among their members.
Another alleged offence
cited by the registrar was the party's failure to submitted audited
accounts of financial income and expenditure for the year 2013/14.
Although
Mr Mutungi gave ACT-Wazalendo until April 8 to defend itself,
indications of increased state animosity against the party were further
manifested on Wednesday when police moved in to break up an internal
meeting of the party's top hierarchy, convened to discuss how to set up
their defence.
Both Mr Kabwe and Mr Hamad were present at the meeting.
The
apparent battle of wits now being waged between the state and
ACT-Wazalendo has served to relegate both the country's recognised main
opposition parties CUF and Chadema to the back burner, at least for the
time being.
While President Magufuli continues to be
seen as a virtual shoo-in for re-election next year – thanks in no small
part to his administration's systematic squeezing of political and
democratic space – there is still much interest in how the opposition is
shaping up for Zanzibar's presidential polls, when incumbent Dr Ali
Mohammed Shein will leave after the constitutional two terms in office.
Until
the Registrar of Political Parties' intervention, it was Mr Kabwe who
looked to be the bigger beneficiary of this partnership by offering him
and his party more leverage over Chadema and other opposition parties in
the mainland (Union) political arena.
Mr Hamad's shift
to ACT-Wazalendo, along with hundreds of his supporters, has been
described as “seismic,” especially for Zanzibar where CUF, under his
watch, has remained the undisputed alternative to CCM for over three
decades.
But while his alliance with Mr Kabwe has
weakened CUF's position in this sense, it remains to be seen how it
might help his own chances of finally defeating the ruling party's next
candidate for the Isles’ presidency on his sixth bid.
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