Chaos mar Bububu by-election

BY THE GUARDIAN REPORTER
17th September 2012

Another Channel Ten reporter is attacked

A man casts his vote at Bububu polling station in Zanzibar yesterday as people flocked polling centres to elect their representative in a bye-election. Sporadic violent incidents between the main rivals political parties, CUF and CCM, were reported during the exercise. (Photo: Correspondent Martin Kabemba)

A man casts his vote at Bububu polling station in Zanzibar yesterday 

as people flocked polling centres to elect their representative in a bye-election. 

Sporadic violent incidents between the main rivals 

Zanzibar television journalist was yesterday beaten up and properties destroyed in fights between fanatics of various political parties in the Bububu by-election here, before police intervention to restore calm.


Police intervened by firing live ammunitions in the air to stop the chaos from generating into a bigger mayhem. The by-election is being held to fill the vacancy left after the death of Salum Amour Mtondoo of the ruling CCM in February this year.
Reports from the scene said the fracas started early in the morning when the polling stations were opened. Police detectives in civilian attire and who covered their faces with black and while pieces of clothes on a Toyota Pick Up fired live ammunitions in the air at Beitrasi polling station.
The same incident happened at the Bububu polling station after a group of people believed to be members and fans of some political parties started searching vehicles which were heading to the polling stations.
Interviewed people said they were searching the vehicles because they did not trust that all people heading to the constituency belonged to that area.
An eyewitness told this paper that while reporters were moving from the Beitrasi polling station to Bububu, they found a group of people hitting a parked vehicle at Kibweni area, destroying its mirrors and placing it on the roadside before they embarked on a passenger vehicle which they also damaged.
The destruction of the car with registration number Z 979 DR, was done close to Kibweni State Lodge.
Channel Ten reporter Munir Zakaria had parked his car in the area where he was taking video pictures before a group of young men who had gathered at the CCM branch office attacked him before they destroyed his working gadgets.
The young people took his camera away before police car PT 1449, arrived to rescue him.
Speaking to this paper Zakaria said he was severely wounded on his mouth, his camera utterly destroyed and wallet lost.
“I was just fulfilling my responsibility. I haven’t done anything bad or broken any law. I don’t understand why they attacked me,” he said.
Meanwhile, Beitrasi center returning officer Abdullah Bakari Khamis said voters started arriving in the area early in the morning and that most of them had voted by mid afternoon.
Bububu returning officer Maalim Mussa said the exercise went on smoothly as the voters arrived at the centre at around 7am.
He said though the voters’ names were placed on the board a week before the elections, most of them didn’t cross check to ascertain their exact voting chambers.“We assisted them to check the names in order to speed up the voting exercise,” he noted.
One of the CCM election supervisors, Thuwayba Kisasi said it was not fair for a certain group of people to bar others from voting given that it was the right of all eligible citizens to so.
For his part, Civic United Front election observer Habib Mohamed Mnyaa said there were bad moves associated with the entire exercise such as the names of eligible voters being used to vote by unknown people.
Alliance for Democratic Change (ADC) contestant Zuhura Bakari Mohamed said she will not recognise the election results because of the series of incidents that are contrary to election procedures.
The Police Commander for Zanzibar West Region, Aziz Juma Mohamed, refused to comment on the chaos including the beating of the Channel Ten reporter, saying he was involved in other duties.
Constitutional Affairs and Justice minister Abubakar Khamis Bakari also declined to comment on the tightened security at the main entrances of Beitrasi and Bububu polling stations, saying journalists had witnessed all the incidents.
Meanwhile reports coming in as we went to press, said CCM had won the bye-election after its candidate Hussein Ibrahim Makungu secured 3,371 of the 6,646 votes cast while CUF’s Issa Hamis Issa got 3,204 votes and ADC’s Zuhra Bakari Mohamed got 45 votes. The reports said CUF candidate Issa refused to accept the results, saying they were not free and fair and that he plans to file petition.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN