Fair But Flawed

Violence has become a familiar hallmark of elections on the semi-autonomous and mostly Muslim island of Zanzibar, which shares a sometimes-thorny union with mainland Tanzania. Last week, the sting of teargas once again overpowered the scent of salt and spices that has made the exotic island a popular tourist destination.

Though Tanzania has earned praise from institutions such as the World Bank as well as western donors for grappling with economic and political reforms, Zanzibaris don't always share westerners' enthusiasm. Some Zanzibaris resent being ruled from Dar es Salaam on the mainland; some want to secede altogether. Violent clashes between police and opposition supporters marred the last two elections, when Tanzania's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (ccm) party was declared the winner.

Ready for trouble when islanders went to the polls this time to elect a new Zanzibar president, Zanzibari parliament and local councillors, the government in Dar es Salaam sent in more than 20,000 police and soldiers to prevent unrest. It didn't work. On election day in the narrow streets of Stone Town, opposition supporters, who claim the ruling party rigs the island's elections (often with the help of all those security forces), rioted after their "victory celebration" was broken up by police with teargas. Security forces also needed rubber bullets to disperse supporters of the Civic United Front opposition, which wants more autonomy for Zanzibar.

Local voters were particularly incensed when a busload of men wearing brand-new army trousers and civilian T-shirts arrived to cast ballots at the downtown Forodhani polling station. "Either they are army people from the mainland or they are people from elsewhere on the island who received these trousers as a bribe," said an opposition supporter at the scene. Nevertheless, Western monitors called the elections "fair but flawed," — in other words, there were anomalies but the process was mostly sound — while a Southern African observer team judged the balloting both free and fair. Now, opposition voters say they are frustrated by what they consider a betrayal by other Africans, and are urging Zanzibaris to mount a people's revolution like Ukraine did to overturn fixed elections. In the village of Nungwi, on the northern tip of Zanzibar's main island, a small-scale boycott has already begun. "We don't buy from CCM-shop owners and we will not help our CCM-neighbors," said a young villager. "It's going to be a long battle but we have to make sure that we get real free and fair elections.

And as long as the international community is not interested in helping us, we have to do it ourselves." Other dissatisfied voters suggested that the opposition should ask fellow Muslims for financial and moral support. That prospect has always worried Western observers, who fear that young, angry Zanzibar men could be ready recruits for Islamic radicals. "Our African brothers and sisters have abandoned us," said an opposition supporter in Stone Town. "Maybe it's time to look for support from the Arab world."