Battle for Igunga on

The Citizen Reporters Dar es Salaam. Campaigns begin today ahead of what is expected to be a hotly contested parliamentary by-election in Igunga Constituency, Tabora Region.The election scheduled for October 2 has been necessitated by the resignation on July 13 of CCM’s Rostam Aziz, who quit after holding the seat for 17 years.A handful of political parties have nominated candidates for the race, but it is CCM, CUF and Chadema which are viewed as the main contenders.  Other parties lined up for the race are Chausta, UPDP, AFP, DP and SAU.CUF was the only opposition party to have fielded a candidate in the constituency in last year’s General Election, which saw Mr Aziz easily retain his seat. The by-election has attracted significant interest across Tanzania’s political spectrum, and some political analysts told The Citizen yesterday that there was much more at stake in Igunga than just a parliamentary seat. They hinted that although the next General Election was four years away, political parties viewed the Igunga poll a pointer to what would happen in 2015. The three top parties have vowed to use all means at their disposal, including helicopters, in their quest to reach as many voters as possible in the next 24 days. Retired President and former CCM national chairman Benjamin Mkapa is expected to launch the party’s campaign today. Several top CCM operatives have also been lined up to campaign for the party’s candidate, Dr Peter Kafumu. They include the party’s secretary for economic affairs, Mr Mwigulu Nchemba. Publicity and ideology secretary Nape Nnauye has been in Igunga for several days now laying the ground for the party’s campaign trail. Mr Nnauye told The Citizen by telephone last night that they were not under any pressure because “victory is guaranteed”. He said the Igunga poll was not different from previous by-elections in Tunduru, Mbeya Rural and Tarime, adding it was not unusual for prominent CCM members to campaign for the party’s candidates. “We sent (former President and party chairman Ali Hassan) Mwinyi to Mbeya Rural, while (party vice chairman Pius) Msekwa was in Tarime...Igunga is not that special,” Mr Nnauye said. He added: “Thirty-two of the 35 councillors in Igunga are from CCM  This means that we enjoy wide support in 35 wards, while our rivals can expect some degree of support in only three wards.” Mr Nnauye said the Opposition’s failure to agree on a single candidate would make CCM’s work “easier”. Senior Chadema officials could not be reached yesterday, but the party had already stated that all its top leaders, including chairman Freeman Mbowe and secretary-general Willibrod Slaa and almost all MPs, would campaign for the party’s candidate, Mr Joseph Kashindye. Mr Kashindye and his team of campaigners will crisscross the constituency by helicopter. CUF’s candidate is Mr Leopold Mahona, whose campaign will be launched by party secretary-general Seif Shariff Hamad, who is also Zanzibar’s First Vice-President.  Mr Mahona garnered 11,733 votes against Mr Aziz’s 35,674 in last year’s General Election. Mr Hamad said yesterday that party chairman Ibrahim Lipumba, vice-chairman Machano Khamis Ali and himself would lead the CUF campaign.Describing the events in Igunga, a senior lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, Dr Azaveli Lwaitama, said a lot was at stake in the by-election. “Parties are out to show their power and prove that their ideologies work,” he said.He said CCM was intent on proving that its policy of cleansing itself of members perceived to be corrupt was working. “After managing to push Rostam out, they want to prove that the party is still strong by retaining the seat formerly held by him.” Dr Lwaitama said Chadema also badly wanted to win the seat to show that its stand against grand corruption was resonating among voters, while CUF was out to boost its presence in Parliament by winning a seat in the Mainland. “All parties are fully aware of what is at stake in Igunga, and that is why they have decided to send powerful teams to campaign for their candidates,” he said. A lecturer at the Open University of Tanzania, Mr Salim Othman Hamad, said the magnitude of resources set aside by the three main parties indicated the importance of the by-election.“Four years in politics is like one day.  The results might be a pointer to the parties’ prospects in 2015,” he said.The OUT lecturer said history favoured CUF because the party’s founder, Mr James Mapalala, and its current chairman, Prof Lipumba, both hail from Tabora Region. He said the party’s candidate was already well known among voters after campaigning ahead of last year’s General Election, adding that this should enable him to make a flying in the campaigns.