How CCM won Igunga

Dr Dalaly Peter Kafumu is carried shoulder-high after he was declared the winner of the Igunga by-election yesterday afternoon. PHOTO | FIDELIS FELIX

By Ray Naluyaga
The Citizen Bureau Chief
Igunga. Clear message delivery, well coordinated party network, campaign strategies and long experience in local politics are some of factors that enabled the ruling party to retain the Igunga parliamentary seat.The CCM candidate, Dr Peter Kafumu, beat seven other candidates in the Sunday by-election to win the seat left vacant after the resignation of former, long-serving MP Rostam Aziz, over what he described as gutter politics within the ruling party.

Speaking to The Citizen here yesterday, a political science PhD student who was in Igunga as part of research programme, Mr Tungaraza Timothy, said CCM’s message in the campaign aimed at telling the voters that its failure to accomplish some projects, which was Opposition’s main agenda, was caused by factors which were beyond the party’s control.

“Admission by CCM that the national cake is small and that it must prioritise on what it does with it made people understand why Igunga lacks bridges roads,” he explained.He said CCM’s extensive network that goes all the way down to the grassroots was an added advantage. Mr Timothy observed that compared to Chadema, which enjoys immense support among the youth, CCM has women as permanent voters.

“I attended Chadema’s campaign closing rally, it was the largest compared to that of CCM and CUF, but the crowd comprised mostly youth between 15 and 17 years of age who are not registered as voters,” he said.He further observed that CCM’s decision to use Rostam Aziz at its opening rally restored the lost confidence among some voters who had started to see it as a party marred by internal conflicts.He further said former President Benjamin Mkapa was also most handy for, he noted, many people still cherish some of the things he did during his tenure.

As for Chadema, he said, apart from spending most of its time attacking CCM and its government, it failed to give its candidate, Mr Joseph Kashindye, enough time to campaign.

He observed that during Chadema’s first rally at Nkinga Ward, party chairman Freeman
Mbowe spent most of the time faulting President Kikwete, a thing that was not a priority to Igunga voters.
For his part, Mr Ali Athumani observed that Chadema did not give enough time to its candidate to speak to wananchi during its rallies. For example, he noted, in Nkinga Mr Kashindye was given only three minutes though most people wanted to hear from the person who was seeking to be their MP. At Nanga and Ziba villages the candidate spoke for only five minutes.

He further noted that Kikwete’s month-end speech,  in which he strongly warned that the government wouldn’t tolerate anyone who would even think of causing chaos on the voting day was also a boost for CCM. “This is so because women and the elderly who are CCM’s traditional voters were assured of peace and security, so they turned out in large numbers,” he said.

Chadema’s defeat was also blamed on the party’s failure to localise its campaigns. According to Mr Wiston Joseph, Chadema used people from outside Igunga such as its MPs and other party officials while CCM relied heavily on locals.
“Wherever CCM held a rally, people close to Dr Kafumu, who were Igungans and spoke the local dialect, remained behind and chatted with the people face to face about their candidate and the party. This is something that Chadema did not do,” he said.

But also Chadema’s decision to dump election agents hailing from Igunga was said to be another reason why the party lost. One Ms Amina Salum said some youth from Igunga felt the party had no faith in them.
“If the allowances paid to outsiders were paid to the locals, their impact could have been felt at the family level and help the party gain approval of the voters,” she said.

Mr Timothy further told The Citizen that Chadema, which came second in the poll, failed to articulate its policies as clearly as CCM did.“Chadema used its meetings to tell people how evil CCM was but this does not help voters who would like to hear what the party and its

candidate would do for them,” he said.
He also hailed CCM’s decision to use Mr January Makamba and other youthful party stalwarts to woo the young who are otherwise pro-Chadema.