Military

DATE=NOVEMBER 4, 2000

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ZANZIBAR ELECTION OVERNIGHT (L ONLY)

BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT:

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Voters on the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar return to the polls Sunday to vote in elections that were canceled one week ago. As VOA's Scott Stearns reports, Zanzibar's leading opposition party is boycotting the polls, claiming the outcome has already been fixed by Tanzania's ruling party.

TEXT: Sunday's voting takes place in 16 constituencies where Zanzibar's Electoral Commission canceled last week's balloting after some polling stations failed to open and others lacked sufficient ballot papers.

Those irregularities led election observers from the Commonwealth and the Organization of African Unity to question the fairness of the vote. Commonwealth observers called the outcome "a colossal contempt for ordinary Zanzibari people and their aspirations for democracy."

The Commonwealth and Zanzibar's leading opposition party wanted the entire election repeated. Zanzibar's Electoral Commission said that would be too expensive.

The decision to re-run the vote in only 16 constituencies prompted the opposition Civic United Front to boycott Sunday's election. With 40 percent of the island's vote at stake, an opposition boycott means the ruling party is sure to hold on to power.

The ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party won last week's vote on mainland Tanganyika where polling appears to have gone smoothly. President Benjamin Mkapa won re-election as Tanzania's national leader. Now he is trying to keep his party in control of the semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar and Pemba.

President Mkapa chaired an emergency meeting of the ruling party on Zanzibar last week. He said the government would take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that the voting and its aftermath are not marred by violence.

As there is no appealing the decision of the Zanzibar Electoral Commission, the opposition Civic United Front is likely to take to the streets once the ruling party is announced the winner. CUF supporters have already clashed with Zanzibari police in the island's stone town. There is an increasing militancy in the party, especially as CUF believes it was robbed of Zanzibar's last election in 1995.

More than a dozen CUF leaders are in jail on treason charges. Amnesty International says Zanzibari authorities "have consistently attempted to stifle political opposition on the islands over the past few years."

Publicly, CUF leaders are urging their supporters to demonstrate peacefully, but privately they confess they may no longer be able to keep their more aggressive members in check.

There is a large military presence on the island with trucks of army troops and police patrolling opposition strongholds. Sunday's ballot papers were delivered under armed guard. (SIGNED)

NEB/SS/KBK