News Break
Tanzania’s ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi has cleared President John Pombe Magufuli to run for President of Tanzania scheduled for the month of October this year. The party’s national Congress also nominated Defence & National Service Minister Dr. Hussein Mwinyi, the son of former Tanzanian president Ali Hassan Mwinyi, to run for president of the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar.
President Magufuli, who is seeking a second and final five-year term as President garnered 100 percent of the votes from 1,822 CCM’s national congress delegates at the Jakaya Kikwete Convention Center in Dodoma.
“The 100 percent victory is a debt to Tanzanians that I will repay by working harder. I will not let down Tanzanians,” President Magufuli told the delegates as he retained Ms Samia Suluhu Hassan as his running mate saying she is respectful and hard working.
Dr. Mwinyi promised to follow the footsteps of President Magufuli in fighting corruption, indiscipline and misuse of resources if elected president of Zanzibar.
Magufuli, who was elected in 2015, has in his first term been accused of narrowing freedoms and increasing authoritarianism and seeking to cover up his country’s coronavirus epidemic by not releasing test results since April this year.
The CCM has promised to create 8 million jobs in the next five years in their manifesto which emphasizes good governance, justice and revolutionizing agriculture, among others.
Opposition parties have called for an independent electoral body to manage the polls but said that unlike last year during local elections, they will not boycott this year’s polls.
The Chairman of the Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT Wazalendo) Seif Sharif Hamad will be running for the presidency of Zanzibar while Zitto Kabwe who is a critic of President Magufuli and Chadema party’s Freeman Mbowe are expected to challenge the President in the mainland polls.
