CCM supporters listen to President John Magufuli at Dodoma’s Jamhuri
Stadium yesterday where the ruling party launched its campaign ahead of
the October 28 General Election. PHOTO | CORRESPONDENT
Dodoma — Ruling
party CCM yesterday commissioned its campaign for the October General
Election promising better days ahead if it wins.
Party's
presidential candidate John Magufuli, who is seeking re-election, said
he wants to accelerate the gains made in the last five years and deliver
more in the second term.
"I have done a lot
and you all are witnesses to this. I'm now asking for your vote to
sustain the momentum and deliver new more," said Dr Magufuli at the
party's first campaign rally at Jamhuri Stadium in the capital, Dodoma.
Dr Magufuli
mentioned some of the flagship projects he championed in the past five
years as including the construction of standard gauge railway and the
Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project that will produce 2,115 megawatts.
He also mentioned
the increase of number of students joining university and who benefit
from study loans from 98,300 in 2015 to 130,885 in 2020 while energy
access has improved from 35 percent to 85 percent.
"We will keep on
taking measures to reduce poverty by stressing on sectors such as
agriculture, tourism and mining which employ more people," he said
promising that he will ensure commercialization of agriculture.
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Dr Magufuli also
promised that CCM will ensure five more aircraft are bought for the
state-run Air Tanzania Company Ltd (ATCL) including one for cargo.
The event, which
started early morning to the evening, attracted residents of the new
capital and those from neighbouring towns amid entertainment by famous
Tanzanian artistes including Diamond Platnamz and Ali Kiba.
The meeting started
with entertainment early in the morning and after speeches of the party
leaders in the evening, the entertainment sessions continued.
Outside the venue,
all was green as party outfits and various items were being sold by
entrepreneurs seeking to capitalise on the event.
Some roads near the Jamhuri Stadium were temporarily blocked for the day to allow people to cross safely to the venue.
Apart from scanning
of entrants and their belongings in one gate, the security officials
also checked temperatures and ensure use of sanitisers before getting in
the stadium for those who sat on stages.
That was a measure against possible spread of Covid-19 but no social distancing could be observed inside.
Manifesto introduced
The party introduced some of its parliamentary candidates from Dodoma Region and launched its manifesto for 2020-25.
CCM Secretary
General Bashiru Ally also introduced some 18 MPs-elect who were declared
as having passed unopposed by the National Electoral Commission (Nec)
on Friday after opposition aspirants were all disqualified on various
grounds.
"We are starting the campaigns, and we already have a capital of 18 MPs," said Dr Bashiru.
Some of those who
were unopposed include Speaker of the National Assembly Job Ndugai
(Kongwa) and Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa (Ruangwa).
"In parliamentary
democracy, as a Speaker, the issue is not only about contributing to the
deliberations but it's important for the CCM MPs to have a majority of
two-thirds and above so that we can pass anything that is on table,"
said Mr Ndugai.
Dr Bashiru also briefly highlighted the audience on the manifesto which will guide the government in the next five years.
Key highlights from the manifesto
The ruling party's manifesto promises continuity of the "radical implementation" of the development agenda.
The 303-page
document highlighted various issues touching the economic sector, good
governance, social services, defence and security as well as Tanzania's
international cooperation.
Private sector
The party's
document explains that in the next five years, the government will
ensure it creates positive attitudes among civil servants and ensure the
private sector makes meaningful contribution towards industrial
investment.
The CCM government
will also accelerate the implementation of the reforms to improve
business environment by implementing the Blueprint for Regulatory
Reforms to Improve the Business Environment.
Poverty reduction
The manifesto
indicates that Tanzania poverty had reduced from 28.2 percent in 2011/12
to 26.4 percent in 2017/18 and will introduce initiatives such as
enterprise development centres in every region.
The manifesto also stresses on entrepreneurial training and lending working equipment to graduates of technical colleges.
Employment
The party targets
at least seven million new jobs in the next five years by ensuring
credit cooperatives and youth companies access loans from banks and
other financial institutions. It will also cooperate with the private
sector institutions for them to host graduates for internships to equip
them with some necessary skills.
Agriculture
Agriculture employs
over 60 percent of the Tanzania's workforce and the ruling party says
in the manifesto that it will supervise the sector's revolution in the
next five years.
Some of the
promises to the sector include increasing irrigation farmland from the
current 561,383 hectares to 1.2 million hectares by 2025. The party also
promised 261 new irrigation schemes in 25 regions.
Industrialisation
CCM pledges that it
will accelerate the gains of industrialization which has been
implemented since 2015 when Dr Magufuli came into power the first time.
The part said it
will attract the private sector to invest in establishing industries for
inclusive economy. The government will also establish industrial
clusters in every region depending on the availability of resources in
that area.
Infrastructure
The ruling party
aims at completing some 1,716.75km of road currently under construction
and some new 6,006.04 kms to the tarmac level.
In Dar es Salaam,
flyovers are planned at Chang'ombe, Uhasibu, Kamata, Morocco, Mwenge,
Magomeni, Tabata, Fire and two junctions along Ali Hassan Mwinyi road
and United Nations Road and Kinondoni Road. These are part of efforts to
decongest Dar es Salaam City.
Mining
The party says it
will ensure the mining sector benefits more Tanzanians by promoting
small scale miners and ensure all large scale miners procure their
products locally.
Tourism
The tourism sector
was hit by Covid-19 and CCM states that it wants to increase the number
of visitors from 1.5 million visitors in 2019 to five million visitors
come 2025. The revenue from the sector is expected to rise from $2.6
billion in 2019 to $6 billion in the next five years.
Education
The government said
it will continue with the provision of free education from primary to
secondary school levels and increase human resources in higher learning
institutions.
Health
The ruling party plans to increase health by 20 percent from the current 8,446 health centres across the country.
Corruption
CCM states that the fight against corruption will move on and will come up with new ways of accelerating the battle.
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