By Deogratius Kamagi
THE year 2020 comes to an end with Tanzanians being proud of the social foundation that has continued to make Tanzania a peaceful and democratic nation.
The country successfully conducted its 6th general election under the multiparty system, paving the way for more social and economic reforms under the ruling CCM party, which recorded a record victory in the polls held on October 28, this year.
CCM presidential candidate Dr John Magufuli as expected outshone 14 other opposition candidates after garnering 12.5million votes, an equivalent to 84.4 per cent of all valid votes.
Dr Magufuli was followed by far by Chadema's Tundu Lissu, who fetched 1,933,271 votes, or 13 per cent of all valid votes, with former cabinet minister Bernard Membe, who vied on ACT-Wazalendo ticket, managing 81,129 votes, or 0.5 per cent.
Dr Magufuli's re-election reflected the trust that Tanzanians have in the no-nonsense leader, who has unarguably surpassed the people's expectations after successfully implementing almost all major pledges he and his party made ahead of the 2015 polls.
According to analysts, Dr Magufuli's landslide reelection was a reflection of the outstanding performance in the first phase of his presidential tenure that earned him public trust.
Some analysts who spoke to the 'Daily News' following Dr Magufuli's re-election, pointed to major socio-economic projects undertaken by the fifth-phase government as his scoring cards.
But his no nonsense approach in fighting corruption and abuse of office endeared him with the majority of Tanzanians, most especially the poor, who repaid him through their ballots.
Dr Joseph Matumaini of the St Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) said during his first term in office, President Magufuli had brought the country a lot of successes, which are for everyone to see, including roads, flyovers, railways, bridges and meaningful reforms in all other key sectors.
"The fifth-phase government directed efforts on infrastructure development, such as construction of roads, flyovers, railways, bridges as well as improving other sectors, all these things are visible, all these played to his advantage in the presidential race," said the scholar.
He added: "With all these achievements he was able to win the public trust, that if given a second chance, he can do wonders."
Prof Matumaini further noted that the mechanism used by the ruling party to organise his campaign was also among the factors that led to the victory of Dr Magufuli.
"CCM conducted scientific campaigns accompanied by sound policies that touched people's welfare," he said.
University of Dar es Salaam lecturer, Dr Lucas Kisasa said that a huge difference in the number of votes collected by Dr Magufuli against his opponents followed public recognition of the work and capability of Dr Magufuli during the first tenure of his leadership.
"The first five years of his leadership has enhanced the people's confidence in him to lead the nation for a second term," he said.
"Dr Magufuli had shown his capability in leading the nation, including safeguarding interests of the poor and spearheading economic development, a situation that contributed a lot to his landslide victory," he said.
He added that the performance of Dr Magufuli had also backed other party candidates for parliamentary and council seats. Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) Secretary General, Fr Dr Charles Kitima said that he had no doubt with the victory of Dr Magufuli because what he had done had given him credit.
"What has been done so far in the country was giving the president credit in his presidential race to win the election," Dr Kitima said.
In the country's 6th multiparty general election, CCM scooped 256 legislative seats out of 264, with only eight seats taken by three opposition parties, ACT-Wazalendo, the Civic United Front (CUF) and Chadema.
Immediately after taking the oath of office on November 5 at the Jamhuri Stadium in Dodoma, President Magufuli urged Tanzanians to turn their focus to productive activities with the purpose of building up the country's economy.
He implored his fellow countrymen to work hard to ensure all development programmes are implemented and achieved as planned.
"The election is over... our big task ahead is to work hard for the development of our nation," he emphasized.
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