Incumbent President on the campaign trail
This Sunday, Tanzanians will choose their next president. By all accounts the ruling party, CCM, will win again. They have been in power for decades without any serious opponent, and basically have a monopoly on all campaign finance. While hundreds and hundreds of yellow and green CCM posters have been plastered all over town for months, posters promoting opposing parties, tiny in comparison, have only recently popped up and remain rare.
In an unexpected twist, one opposition party has managed to get some serious attention. The leader of the Chadema party has made a splash with his well-received speeches condemning CCM corruption, and the dismal state of public health and education. Locals have told us that CCM seems nervous about this development; Duncan got a “Vote for CCM” text message at 3:30 this morning.
Our Tanzanian friends view challenges to CCM positively. Though it’s highly unlikely that any opposition party can win this year, Chadema has managed to provoke discussion on important issues which, we hope, will ultimately force the government to respond in ways that will benefit the people. Despite some mild warnings from our embassies of potential unrest, most Tanzanians seem to think it will go over peacefully as Tanzanian elections have historically.
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