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Commonwealth Observers' Conclusions on Zanzibar Elections Made Public

24 November 2005

Zanzibar is part of the United Republic of Tanzania

The official report by the Commonwealth Observer Group covering the elections in Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania, has been made public.

The report was published on 17 November 2005, after it was handed over to Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon.

The Observers issued an 'Interim Statement' the day after polling day, which was on 30 October 2005, and a departure statement when they left on 6 November. But until 17 November the Observers' final conclusions had not been made public.

The report shows that the Observers concluded -- as they had in their 'Interim Statement' -- that the voting and the counting of the votes took place in conditions which were such as to enable the electors to freely express their will. There were shortcomings, but "overall", they said, "it was a good election day".

So far as the results process was concerned, the Observers checked that the results from the counts they had attended had been faithfully transmitted to the centres at which the results were collated for each constituency. They added that they found no evidence of the manipulation of the figures. However, the collation process was "not sufficiently transparent" and the Observers called on the Zanzibar Electoral Commission "to publish the results sheet from the count at each polling station, in order to remove suspicion".

To assess the credibility of the entire process the Observers considered not only the vote, count and results process, but the electoral environment as a whole -- including the legal framework, the voter registration process, civic and voter education, the media and the campaign.

Here they added to their positive conclusion concerning the poll and count the view that there was a "reasonably reliable register". But against that they cited the pro-ruling party bias of the Zanzibar media and their view that the collation process "was not sufficiently transparent". They also expressed concern at "the overwhelming presence of the security forces". They said that the judgement as to whether the process taken as a whole was credible was difficult to make, because there was "a mixed picture".

The Observers' report is available to download here. It is also available in printed form from the Commonwealth Secretariat's Political Affairs Division.

CNIS - Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 262, 23 November 2005