Election Observation in Zanzibar

A team of 6 persons from Citizen Election Watch-IT Uganda and one person (Odhiambo Morris) from Kenya participated in the Election Observation process in Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar from 25^th October – 3^rd November 2010. A similar team of 8 other persons were deployed in Arusha and Mwanza. The main purpose was to share learning and gain experiences on conducting observation for election and use of ICT tools as an integral part of election monitoring which can be used as Uganda prepares for the 2011 elections.

The team participated under the auspices of Legal and Human Rights Centre (Tanzania), which is the lead organization in the consortium called TACCEO (Tanzanian Civil Society Consortium on Election Observation) which was formed to monitor the 2010 elections using the selected observers and poll watchers at different levels in the constituencies in parts of the region. The Ugandan team was split in groups to have a wider coverage and capture issues in parts of Dar Es Salaam, Mwanza, Arusha and Zanzibar. This was well coordinated by the TACCEO Regional Coordinator for Dar Es Salaam Dr. Rose Mwaipopo, Harusi in Zanzibar and Jimmy lhuhende in Mwanza.The key highlights observed during the reporting period are presented below:

Campaign process

- The campaigns were good and complied with the government regulations governing the campaigning process and procedure.

- There were cases of sporadic and isolated incidences of violence as reported in some constituencies. These were instantly corrected.

Polling day – 31^st October 2010

The election was peaceful in most of the polling stations visited and were opened in time except one centre at Mbagala Kibonnde Maji station that started at 10.00 am. Despite all these, all those who turned up voted and by 4.00 pm most stations closed with no one queuing to vote

- Most political parties especially CCM, CUF and CHADEMA were represented by their agents with a list of voters to confirm whether their names marched with the respective numbers which made the exercise more transparent. The party agents conducted the entire exercise in a friendly manner regardless of their ideological leaning. They were also friendly to election official.

- The team noticed low voter turn up in the polling stations visited with less than 50%.

- The team witnessed the way votes were counted, filling of the declaration forms and signing of the forms by the party agents to confirm their satisfaction with the results.

- Majority of the polling staff appeared to know what they were doing on polling day and acted efficiently and professionally but a few officers and assistants did not appear certain about the election commission’s guidelines.

- Most of the Invalid ballot papers at the polling stations visited were not ticked which could have resulted from inadequate voter education.

- Police officers were deployed at all the polling stations visited and police who where not on duty voted among other citizens.

Post election events

- The team was also concerned about the slow pace at which election results were being announced and the anxiety which this delay caused among stakeholders

- There was evidence of security personnel deployed in some parts to curb off outbreak of violence.

NEC, TACCEO, MEDIA

- The voter register was displayed 8 days before the elections to allow voters cross check their names and raise complaints before actual voting day. Cases of disqualified voters and missing names were reported and action taken on some of them to allow them vote.

- Constituency Observers deployed by TACCEO that worked with the Ugandan team looked motivated and knew the issues in their areas. They were able to brief the teams about the situation in the constituency and guided us to the campaign rallies and polling stations.

- News coverage and access of the state media notably TBC, Daily News and Habari Leo Newspapers by different political parties were balanced in their reporting.

Use of ICT by TACCEO

www.uchaguzi.or.tz

The ICT centre was housed at LHRC offices in Dar Es Salaam

- The use of the ICT portal empowered citizens to report on incidences during the election process in real time on the website

- Having many (about 40) volunteers to approve and verify all the incoming reported incidences/text messages was very effective.

- There was action taken about some of the messages sent that required Police or NEC action. This was timely communicated to the relevant authorities

- The centre had all the contacts of the key Police Officers which made the work easy to implement messages that needed police action

- Messages were coming in both Kiswahili and English. This enabled the public to freely express themselves in the language they are comfortable with.

- Total number of reports approved and verified as at 2^nd November 2010 were 1486.

- The use of other social media like the skype, twitter, jamii forums, Uchaguzi situation rooms were very effective in supporting the web portal in being up and running by all parties involved.