Tanzanian opposition election pact

The opposition has far to go to rival CCM

By Roger Dean in Dar es Salaam

Two of Tanzanian opposition parties on Wednesday signed an agreement to work together in the coming election.

A fractured and fractious opposition has always undermined attempts to remove Tanzania's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party from power.

The agreement between the Civic United Front and Chadema sets out the terms for co-operation in the October polls.

But the two parties have a long way to go before even their combined vote tally exceeds that of CCM.

If the alliance does succeed, CUF Chairman Professor Ibrahim Lipumba will become the next president of Tanzania, with the Prime Minister coming from Chadema.

Liberal agenda

Speaking before the signing ceremony this afternoon, Professor Lipumba said that the liberal agendas of the two parties were similar enough to allow for an effective coalition, although he would welcome other parties into the alliance.

President Mkapa has been reappointed as the CCM candidate

Parties that choose not to join, he warned, will be harshly judged at the ballot box.

The CUF-Chadema alliance will perform well, Professor Lipumba believes, because President Benjamin Mkapa, while popular with the donor community for his economic reforms, has failed to provide adequate social services and reduce poverty.

The opposition alliance comes into being just as CCM is besieged by allegations of corruption. Accusations, boycotts and infighting have characterised the process of choosing parliamentary candidates.

CCM confident

Whatever their own problems however, the CCM government will lose little sleep over the alliance's chances at the polls, on the mainland at least.

In the last elections in 1995 the two parties got less than 12% of the vote between them, and are counting on a fourfold increase in seats in the national assembly.

There do not appear to be grounds for such hopes - indeed, most commentators expect President Mkapa to be strengthened by the election.

The door is open, says Professor Lipumba, for other parties to join his liberation alliance, but it may not be the door to the State House.