United Republic of Tanzania - Zanzibar 2005 Elections: Departure Statement

We leave Dar es Salaam today, having completed our report to the Commonwealth Secretary-General.

In our Interim Statement, issued the day after the election, we expressed the view that the part of the process which we had seen up to that point - the voting and the counting of the votes on 30 October - provided conditions which were such as to enable the electors to freely express their will. There were various shortcomings and we have referred to these in our report. However, overall it was a good election day and we remain of the view we expressed on 31 October.

Following the release of our Interim Statement, we turned to two further matters: our observation of the remaining key part of the process, the collation of the results at the district collation centres and the offices of the Zanzibar Electoral Commission; and consideration of the various factors impinging on the credibility of the electoral process as a whole.

We found the collation process not to be sufficiently transparent. We did not find any evidence of the manipulation of the results figures from the counts at the polling stations. But we are concerned that the system is insufficiently robust. The Zanzibar Electoral Commission should publish the results sheet from the count at each polling station, in order to remove suspicion.

So far as the credibility of the electoral process as a whole is concerned, there is a mixed picture. Eventually there was a reasonably reliable register, and a satisfactory polling day and count. But the Zanzibar media was biased towards the ruling party and, as we have already stated, the collation process, in our view, was not sufficiently transparent.

We could not fail to notice that during our time in Zanzibar there was a very heavy presence of security forces, including riot police and soldiers. We regard the maintenance of law and order as a vital task for any government. But we believe that the actions of the security forces in Zanzibar have not always been appropriate and proportionate, and we urge restraint in the future.

This election provided clear evidence of the determination of the people of Zanzibar to make the most of their democratic rights. We know, like them, that the building of a democracy is more than a matter of a single election: it is a process which takes place over time. We are confident that the people of Zanzibar and its leaders are reading the signs of the times and will succeed in consolidating their democratic achievements in the years to come.

Key Links:

• United Republic of Tanzania - Zanzibar 2005 Elections: Interim Statement
• Democracy
• Country Profile: United Republic of Tanzania