Election officials in Zanzibar on Monday declared incumbent President Ali Mohamed Shein and the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party the winners of controversial re-run elections in Tanzania's semi-autonomous islands. Fifteen European and US diplomats, however, issued a joint statement regretting the weekend vote, which was boycotted by the opposition.
Sunday's presidential and legislative elections were a re-run of October polls that were cancelled by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) over fraud allegations. The annulment came after opposition CUF candidate Seif Sharif Hamad declared himself the winner before the results were officially announced. CUF leaders say the move to annul the initial results was designed to block their party's victory and deliver another win for the CCM which dominates on the Tanzania mainland.
In Sunday's vote, the CCM party won 91.4 percent of the vote and Shein was re-elected at the polls, the ZEC said. Shein, who was been in office since 2010 and is due to be sworn in again on Thursday, welcomed the announcement, saying: "I am prepared to serve Zanzibaris for another five years. Let's work together."
But the diplomats said "we regret the Zanzibar Electoral Commission's decision to hold a re-run of the 25 October 2015 election, without a mutually acceptable and negotiated solution to the current political impasse." "We reiterate our call ... to pursue a negotiated solution between parties, with a view to maintaining peace and unity in the United Republic of Tanzania."
Shein won 299,982 votes against just 6,076 - or 1.9 percent - for his main rival Seif Sharif Hamad of the opposition CUF. Hamad was first vice president in the unity government that ruled Zanzibar from 2010 but said he would not participate in any future administration. Almost 68 percent of Zanzibar's 503,000 registered voters turned out on Sunday, according to the ZEC.
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