Tanzanians voted Sunday in elections which incumbent President Jakaya Kikwete predicted will hand him a landslide victory for a second term in office.
Voting went smoothly despite some organisational hitches and polling stations closed from around 4:00 pm local time for ballot counting. Results were expected by Wednesday according to the election body.
"The party is expecting a landslide. The CCM has done a lot for the country in the last five years," Kikwete told reporters after casting his vote in his home village Msoga, some 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Dar es Salaam.
"The campaign was stiff because others also campaigned strongly but we are going to win by a very huge margin," he said, sporting blue trousers and a cream jacket and accompanied by his wife.
Kikwete, a 60-year-old former foreign minister, has pledged to improve health, education and infrastructure. Critics accuse him of talking about proposed improvements but never implementing them.
Election monitors said voting went off without incident despite complaints from some voters that their names were missing from the electoral register.
"We do not know how widespread it is. Some voters are turning up and finding their names are not on the list and are unable to vote," said Paul East, head of the Commonwealth observer group here.