US embassy cable - 05DARESSALAAM214

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAR ES SALAAM 000214 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/E AND INR/AA 
 
E.O. 12958: 2/1/15 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, EAID, TZ 
SUBJECT: Zanzibar's Voter Registration: Trouble in 
North Unguja? 
 
 
Classified by Pol-Econ Chief Judy Buelow for reason 
1.4(b) 
 
REF: A) Dar es Salaam 151, B) 04 Dar es Salaam 2606, 
C) 04 Dar es Salaam 2591, D) 04 Dar es Salaam 2341 
 
1. (C) Summary:  In late January, the mobile teams of 
the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) began to 
register voters in the Northern District of Unguja, 
Zanzibar's main island.  Although diplomatic observers 
had expected registration to proceed quietly there, 
opposition parties soon began to circulate allegations 
of interference and possible irregularities in the 
registration process.  Over the next weeks, donor 
country diplomats plan to observe voter registration 
on Unguja, to verify actual conditions.  The diplomats 
will keep a low profile, to avoid aggravating the 
government's stated sensitivities about "foreign 
interference."  End Summary. 
 
2. (C) Disputes about voter registration on Zanzibar 
have resurfaced, just days after the ZEC's mobile 
teams finished registering voters on Pemba Island and 
set up registration centers in Unguja Island's 
Northern District.  On January 31, the international 
liaison for the opposition CUF party, Ismail Jussa 
Ladhu, circulated a sixteen-point list of complaints 
to western embassies.  On February 1, opposition 
leader Naila Jiddawi, currently fence-sitting between 
the CUF and the NCCR parties, telephoned emboff with 
additional allegations of registration problems.  An 
FSN stationed on Zanzibar also relayed reports from 
the government-owned Zanzibar press.  Most of these 
complaints are detailed descriptions of incidents that 
include the date, the location of the registration 
centers where the incidents occurred, and the names or 
positions of the persons involved. 
 
3.(SBU) The CUF party charges that the CCM-dominated 
government is deliberately arresting and harassing 
local CUF party leaders while voter registration is 
underway in North Unguja.  According to several very 
worrisome allegations, credentialed party agents 
responsible for observing voter registration have 
faced interference.  Jussa said that a policeman at 
the Fujoni Kiombamvua registration center tore up the 
CUF agent's notes, and that the CUF agents in centers 
in Bumbwini Misufini and Mahonda were arrested.  Naila 
Jiddawi reported that a local government official 
"manhandled" a NCCR party agent at another center. 
Also new, and worrisome, are allegations that the 
police officers assigned to protect registration 
centers are instead interfering with registration. 
Jussa's sixteen points alleged that police were 
arresting party agents, or "forcing" ZEC returning 
officers to register unqualified minors or residents 
from the Tanzanian mainland. 
 
4. (SBU) The CUF's most recent communication 
reiterates the party's standard complaint that the CCM 
government is deliberately transferring members of the 
security forces so that they can register in contested 
constituencies.  (If government employees are 
transferred into a district, even for an afternoon, 
they can legally register in that district.)  Jussa's 
document alleged that a convoy of government vehicles 
transported fifty mainlanders from the Tunguu Camp to 
the Mangapwani center; a government vehicle registered 
to the Zanzibar prisons system allegedly transported 
mainlanders to another registration center.  Naila 
Jiddawi said that the ZEC has opened two new 
registration centers in Pangu Tupu and in Kichaka 
Prewere (phonetic); the opposition fears that the new 
centers are intended to handle the overload of 
government transferees.  Meanwhile, the CUF alleges 
that citizens originating in pro-CUF Pemba are denied 
registration, even if they have resided in Unguja for 
decades. 
 
5. (U) The government-owned press on Zanzibar reports 
that arsonists burned the homes of two CCM- party 
agents; CUF reports that one of their District 
Secretaries was arrested on "false" charges in 
 
SIPDIS 
connection with the attack. 
 
6. (C) Because these allegations are so detailed, they 
can be verified.  Several donor-country diplomats 
intend to do so.  A group of diplomats accepted the 
ZEC's invitation to observe voter registration on 
Pemba on December 2; they all were issued 
international observer credentials that will remain 
valid until voter registration is complete.  In 
principle, any diplomat with a credential can observe 
Zanzibar's voter registration at any time.  The 
diplomats have agreed to make frequent visits to the 
registration centers, but to visit in small, 
inconspicuous groups, to avoid aggravating 
sensitivities about foreign interference.  The 
Canadian First Secretary is planning to observe 
registration in the later part of the week of January 
31-Feburary 4; Emboff will observe registration on 
February 8-9.  In all cases, the diplomats will try to 
determine if illegalities have occurred, urge all 
parties to use established procedures to resolve 
disputes  nd avoid becoming an issue themselves. 
 
7. (C) Comment:  On January 20, a group of donor 
country diplomats, who had gathered at the Norwegian 
Embassy to assess the ZEC's progress, concluded that 
the disputes over voter registration would likely 
diminish over the next few months. (See reftel A.) 
Tensions would lessen, the thinking went, while the 
ZEC registered voters in the CCM strongholds of 
Unguja's north and south district, since the 
opposition would be less concerned about CCM 
registration maneuvers potentially tipping the balance 
away from the opposition.  The diplomats expected 
tensions to rise in late March, when the ZEC's mobile 
registration teams moved to the CUF stronghold of 
Urban West.  It's a bad sign that partisan allegations 
of chicanery at the registration centers are already 
proliferating.  The ZEC may yet prove to be the silver 
lining in this cloud:  throughout the disputes, 
conflict and violence that marred the early days of 
voter registration on South Pemba last December, the 
Zanzibar Electoral Commission was able to maintain its 
independence, keep control of voter registration and 
ensure the integrity of the process. The ZEC will have 
to keep up the good work, under very trying 
circumstances, if voter registration is to succeed. 
End comment. 
 
Owen