Police feared tear gas to disperse opposition supporters before arresting Hamad
DAR ES SALAAM, Oct 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A major opposition party in Tanzania has accused security forces of shooting dead five citizens and arresting its leader amid unrest in the semi-autonomous archipelago over alleged fraud on the eve of the country’s presidential election.
The ACT Wazalendo (Alliance for Change and Transparency) party said several others were injured and dozens more arrested in Pemba – an opposition stronghold on the Zanzibar island.
“Information we have as of now is that five people are dead, they have been shot by law enforcers. Some of them were shot in their homes,” Salim Bimani, ACT-Wazalendo spokesman for the island of Pemba, told DPA news agency on Tuesday.
In a statement on Tuesday, the party said its leader Seif Sharif Hamad, who is taking his sixth shot at the top office, was hauled away by police as he arrived at a polling station in Garagara neighborhood to try and cast his ballot on a day of early voting set aside mainly for security forces.
A police official in Zanzibar city, Mohammed Hassan Haji, confirmed the arrest but gave no details.
Authorities said Hamad had no reason to be at a polling station on Tuesday.
“Today’s early vote is for special groups like election officials, security personnel and people living with disability. Hamad is not part of that special group, according to authorities,” officials said.
There was a heavy presence of police and soldiers across the islands.
In Garagara, riot police fired tear gas and live rounds.
Sectarian and political tensions in Zanzibar – with a cosmopolitan population of Arabs, Asians, and Africans – are more marked than on the mainland.
The Zanzibar archipelago joined with then-Tanganyika to form Tanzania in 1964, and Tanzania’s ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party has been in power ever since.
In January 2001, at least 30 people were killed in clashes between police and opposition supporters after a disputed election. Polls in 2005 were also marred by clashes.
A political deal allowing for more power-sharing led to peaceful elections in 2010, but divisions quickly returned and in 2015, the head of the electoral commission canceled the vote outright.
In 2016, the opposition boycotted the rerun and the CCM party was declared the victor. — NNN-AGENCIES
