Kikwete warms up for the presidency
Tanzanians went to the polls on Wednesday with foreign minister Jakaya Kikwete expected to win the presidency and extend the ruling party's four-decade grip on east Africa’s largest country. <br>
Tanzanians went to the polls on Wednesday with foreign minister Jakaya Kikwete expected to win the presidency and extend the ruling party's four-decade grip on east Africa’s largest country.
Kikwete is vying against nine other candidates in the country’s third multi-party ballot since winning independence from Britain in 1961.
Among the candidates is the country’s first female presidential hopeful and two previously unsuccessful candidates, one of who is CUF candidate Ibrahim Lipumba, a US-trained economist. He is standing for the third time after defeats in 1995 and 2000.
Surveys put Kikwete way ahead of the other candidates and most analysts agree his lead is untouchable.
“I am very confident I will win,†Kikwete, a devout Muslim said, after voting in his home town of Chalinze, north of Dar es Salaam.
The former head of military intelligence collapsed while giving a campaign speech on Tuesday, shocking supporters. But he later appeared on his feet, attributing the fall to the effects of fasting, exhaustion and dehydration under the hot sun.
Kikwete looked healthy and joked with reporters about his fall as he voted on Wednesday.
On the voting day, while peaceful on the mainland, there was tension on the politically volatile islands of Zanzibar –– a traditional opposition stronghold –– where police fired in the air at a rowdy crowd and there were allegations of irregularities.
Outgoing President Benjamin Mkapa is stepping down after two terms in accordance with Tanzania’s constitution –– an example winning plaudits round a continent where incumbents have often sought to prolong their rule by any means possible.
From the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro to the tourist islands of Zanzibar, some 16 million of Tanzania’s 35 million population were registered to vote until 5:00pm.
Results were not yet out by press time.
Opposition parties were expected to make small gains, partly because of discontent over poverty. But surveys and analysts said Kikwete and his ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), or “Party of the Revolutionâ€, looked unbeatable. “Kikwete has been in leadership for a long time. We have seen what he can do,†said Bernadine Nyami, a housewife in the Dar es Salaam suburb of Mchikichini.
Although he has socialist roots, Kikwete has indicated he would continue to follow the free-market policies of Mkapa and has pledged to create one million jobs annually as well reduce poverty and include more women in leadership roles.
Kikwete’s affiliation with Tanzania’s founding President, Julius Nyerere; his immediate successors Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Mkapa; as well as Kikwete’s long-time membership in the ruling CCM, are expected to work to the candidate’s advantage during elections.
When Mwinyi left office before the country’s first multiparty poll in 1995, Kikwete unsuccessfully challenged Mkapa for the CCM nomination but gracefully accepted the party’s choice. For this, he was rewarded the post of foreign minister.
Kikwete, 55, has been the country's longest serving foreign minister, marking a decade at that post this year. Before that, the ever-smiling Kikwete headed the ministries of finance, water, energy and minerals (1990-1994) after serving as deputy minister between 1987 and 1990.
When introducing Kikwete at a campaign rally in Dar es Salaam on August 21, Mkapa described him as a super-diplomat, in recognition of his role in the search for peace in neighbouring Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Yes Tanzania has won accolades for its role as recipient of refugees and mediator. It is Kikwete and his team at the ministry of foreign affairs and international mediators who were doing much of the spade work day and night,†Mkapa said at the rally.
Mkapa also credited him with having done a “splendid job†advancing regional integration within the East African Community and in the Southern African Development Community, both of which Tanzania is a member.
Kikwete graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam with a degree in economics in 1975 and immediately joined CCM, then known as Tanzania African National Union (TANU). While serving as a TANU cadre, Kikwete underwent military training and was, at one time, seconded to the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces as chief political instructor at the Monduli Central Military Academy, the country’s top military training institution.
The academy is located in the northern Tanzanian region of Arusha, where commissioned and commanding officers are trained for leadership in all army units.
The softspoken party cadre then joined CCM’s National Executive Committee, then the all-powerful Central Committee in 1997, where he still looms large.
In accordance with Tanzania’s laws during its one-party socialist era, Kikwete joined the army, rose to become a political instructor in the military academy and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel when political pluralism was reintroduced to the country in 1992.
Kikwete was born on October 7, 1950 in Msoga village in the coastal Bagamoyo District. Apart from a keen interest in politics, which he developed in his college days, Kikwete is also a lover of sports and is currently the patron of Tanzania’s National Basketball Association.
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Kikwete is vying against nine other candidates in the country’s third multi-party ballot since winning independence from Britain in 1961.
Among the candidates is the country’s first female presidential hopeful and two previously unsuccessful candidates, one of who is CUF candidate Ibrahim Lipumba, a US-trained economist. He is standing for the third time after defeats in 1995 and 2000.
Surveys put Kikwete way ahead of the other candidates and most analysts agree his lead is untouchable.
“I am very confident I will win,†Kikwete, a devout Muslim said, after voting in his home town of Chalinze, north of Dar es Salaam.
The former head of military intelligence collapsed while giving a campaign speech on Tuesday, shocking supporters. But he later appeared on his feet, attributing the fall to the effects of fasting, exhaustion and dehydration under the hot sun.
Kikwete looked healthy and joked with reporters about his fall as he voted on Wednesday.
On the voting day, while peaceful on the mainland, there was tension on the politically volatile islands of Zanzibar –– a traditional opposition stronghold –– where police fired in the air at a rowdy crowd and there were allegations of irregularities.
Outgoing President Benjamin Mkapa is stepping down after two terms in accordance with Tanzania’s constitution –– an example winning plaudits round a continent where incumbents have often sought to prolong their rule by any means possible.
From the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro to the tourist islands of Zanzibar, some 16 million of Tanzania’s 35 million population were registered to vote until 5:00pm.
Results were not yet out by press time.
Opposition parties were expected to make small gains, partly because of discontent over poverty. But surveys and analysts said Kikwete and his ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), or “Party of the Revolutionâ€, looked unbeatable. “Kikwete has been in leadership for a long time. We have seen what he can do,†said Bernadine Nyami, a housewife in the Dar es Salaam suburb of Mchikichini.
Although he has socialist roots, Kikwete has indicated he would continue to follow the free-market policies of Mkapa and has pledged to create one million jobs annually as well reduce poverty and include more women in leadership roles.
Kikwete’s affiliation with Tanzania’s founding President, Julius Nyerere; his immediate successors Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Mkapa; as well as Kikwete’s long-time membership in the ruling CCM, are expected to work to the candidate’s advantage during elections.
When Mwinyi left office before the country’s first multiparty poll in 1995, Kikwete unsuccessfully challenged Mkapa for the CCM nomination but gracefully accepted the party’s choice. For this, he was rewarded the post of foreign minister.
Kikwete, 55, has been the country's longest serving foreign minister, marking a decade at that post this year. Before that, the ever-smiling Kikwete headed the ministries of finance, water, energy and minerals (1990-1994) after serving as deputy minister between 1987 and 1990.
When introducing Kikwete at a campaign rally in Dar es Salaam on August 21, Mkapa described him as a super-diplomat, in recognition of his role in the search for peace in neighbouring Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Yes Tanzania has won accolades for its role as recipient of refugees and mediator. It is Kikwete and his team at the ministry of foreign affairs and international mediators who were doing much of the spade work day and night,†Mkapa said at the rally.
Mkapa also credited him with having done a “splendid job†advancing regional integration within the East African Community and in the Southern African Development Community, both of which Tanzania is a member.
Kikwete graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam with a degree in economics in 1975 and immediately joined CCM, then known as Tanzania African National Union (TANU). While serving as a TANU cadre, Kikwete underwent military training and was, at one time, seconded to the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces as chief political instructor at the Monduli Central Military Academy, the country’s top military training institution.
The academy is located in the northern Tanzanian region of Arusha, where commissioned and commanding officers are trained for leadership in all army units.
The softspoken party cadre then joined CCM’s National Executive Committee, then the all-powerful Central Committee in 1997, where he still looms large.
In accordance with Tanzania’s laws during its one-party socialist era, Kikwete joined the army, rose to become a political instructor in the military academy and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel when political pluralism was reintroduced to the country in 1992.
Kikwete was born on October 7, 1950 in Msoga village in the coastal Bagamoyo District. Apart from a keen interest in politics, which he developed in his college days, Kikwete is also a lover of sports and is currently the patron of Tanzania’s National Basketball Association.
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