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Ruling Party Candidate Becomes New President of Zanzibar
Amani Abeid Karume, 52, candidate of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, won on Tuesday the second multiparty elections to become the new president of Zanzibar, a semiautonomous region in Tanzania.
Chairman of the Zanzibar Electoral Commission Abdulrahman Mwinyi Jumbe announced in Bwawani Hotel in Zanzibar that Karume has collected more than 200, 000 votes in all 50 constituencies across the twin islands of Unguja and Pemba in the western Indian Ocean.
Over 446,700 people, or almost half of the population, registered and voted in big numbers in the elections.
Voters recast their ballots in 16 constituencies in Urban West Region in Zanzibar on Sunday following an abortive voting on October 29 due to late or no delivery of voting materials.
Karume will be sworn in on Wednesday to begin a five-year term.
Karume, the eldest son of Zanzibar's founding president Abeid Amani Karume, has over the past five years served as Minister of Communications and Transport in the Revolutionary Government of the self-ruled Zanzibar.
Zanzibar joined with Tanganyika on the mainland to form the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964.
In 1995, the CCM defeated the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) in Zanzibar by a very narrow margin, 50.2 percent over 49.8 percent, in a controversial presidential election which the CUF has been accusing of vote-rigging.
Meanwhile, officials of the National Electoral Commission said on Tuesday that the outcomes of elections for the Union president and members of the National Assembly will be announced on Wednesday.
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