Zanzibar's Voter Registration: Trouble in

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