When the government in semi autonomous Zanzibar formally announced the cancellation of the elections held at the end of October, was the reaction swift as tourism stakeholders expressed their rising concern over the impact of the political stalemate on the Spice Island’s tourism industry.
The elections will now have to be re-run again, at considerable cost of course, after the acting government which for now remains in place – the constitutional term has expired – gazetted the nullification of the polls of 25th October on Wednesday.
The situation was made more complicated as one of the candidates, who served in the coalition government but comes from the opposition, had declared himself winner before any official results were announced, which by common consensus was a violation of the relevant election laws which only permits the Electoral Commission to make such a statement. Although no action has been taken vis a vis Seif Sharif Hamad, very likely to avoid inflaming the situation on the ground, has one source on the island cited that as a reason for the cancellation of the polls.
While the incumbent president of Zanzibar HE. Ali Mohamed Sein, and Seif Hamad have since met repeatedly, with former Tanzanian president Ali Hassan Mwinyi in attendance to mediate, has not progress been made, ultimately causing the gazette notice to be published. No new date for elections has been named as yet and tourism sources have reportedly lobbied to either have the elections as quickly as possible or else after the Christmas / New Year holidays, when the island is normally packed to capacity with local, regional and international visitors.
On the mainland though has normality returned after a heated election campaign which predictably saw ruling party CCM candidate Dr. John Magufuli prevail over his rivals, including former Prime Minister Lowassa who left the CCM in anger when he did not capture the nomination as the CCM candidate. President Magufuli’s Vice President is in fact from Zanzibar, HE. Samia Suluhu Hassan, and is reportedly also working hard behind the scenes to find a positive solution to the Zanzibari situation.
Zanzibar’s main foreign exchange earnings, some suggested as much as 75 percent, come from tourism income and local and international investors have sunk mega bucks into the development of a number of five star resorts, all worried that the long running political differences between the CCM and the opposition could spill over into the streets, causing havoc on the sector which in past years has benefitted from an increased inflow of passengers after Kenya suffered severe anti travel advisories from the UK and the US.
‘Our politicians should remember what happened before here and what happened in Kenya after elections in 2007. The people of Zanzibar need their jobs and if politics are decided in the streets tourists will stay away. We should at all cost avoid problems because it is businesses and wananchi [Kiswahili word for people] who will pay the price of inflated egos and power hungry individuals. We depend on two main economic activities, spice exports and tourism. We simply cannot afford to lose a single tourist over worries that they might run into problems when they spend their holiday here. It gives me nightmares I tell you’ said one source from Unguja, the largest island of the small archipelago making up Zanzibar.
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