…CHADEMA Refuses to Concede Defeat in Kyela, Rungwe Elections.

John David Mwambigija

By TZ Business News Staff.

Businessmen identified by the Tanzania Police force to be sympathetic with the opposition  Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) in the opposition’s strong hold  of Kiwira in Tanzania’s Rungwe district have  gone into hiding to avoid arrest, the party’s district Chairman, Pastor  Juma McLean Mwambelo has told this website.

Everybody thought to support CHADEMA financially is being rounded up and locked-up in Tukuyu, Rungwe district,  Mwambelo said, on charges  that relate to supporting the party.  This has led to some businessmen   closing down their businesses as others run away into hiding.

The harassment of businessmen is especially intense at Kiwira township where  the entrepreneurs Bahati Malundi, Oswald Mwangata, Mbetwa Mwakabenga, Moscow Mwankenja  and Hassan Mwakatwila  have been targets of  the police harassment.

“The police force is being misused here,” the CHADEMA district spokesman said, explaining that police officers ambushed  the entrepreneur Hassan Mwakatwila at his house in the middle of the night, pulled him out of his  bedroom without his clothes on, after breaking the main door and took him away for interrogation at the police station.

Bahati Malundi  and Oswald Mwangata got news police were hunting for them. They ran away from their homes to hide.  An elderly member of the party who had been allowing fellow members to congregate at his home for meetings at Kiwira, Mbetwa Mwakabenga,  was rounded up on charges of  ‘instigating violence,” the spokesman said on the phone. “There is no calm in Rungwe district,” he said, adding that  “the police are to blame.”

The CHADEMA parliamentary contestants for  Rungwe and Kyela constituencies have in the meantime refused to concede defeat.

Members of the opposition Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) party waiting for election result at the Rungwe District Council offices in Tukuyu

The Rungwe District CHADEMA chairman said the party’s parliamentary contestant in the district,  John David Mwambigija, refused to sign consent of defeat forms at the District Council offices where the  District Development Director declared  the businessman Sauli Amon winner in the district parliamentary election.

Mwambigija refused to sign the papers  because the vote counting procedure was flouted, Mwambelo said.  The National Electoral Commission and the political parties participating in the election had agreed that all vote counting was supposed to be done at each polling station and signed by the agents there, and that they overall district tallying would use the figures from the counting done at the individual polling stations.

From Top: Declared winner of parliamentary seat for Rungwe Constituency, the hotelier businessman Sauli Amon, and the declared winner of parliamentary seat for Kyela Constituency, Dr. Harrison Mwakyembe

Total votes from the polling stations counting showed Mwambigija was ahead of Sauli Amon by 5000 votes.  The CCM contestant refused to accept this number and called for a vote recount after the  boxes had been shipped from the polling stations to the district headquarters. The new count found the CCM candidate ahead by 1000 votes, Mwambelo said.

“Something had been done during the shipment of the voting boxes to change the original tally,” the CHADEMA district chairman said.  Mwambigija refused to sign the papers.

In Kyela, the CCM parliamentary contestant, Dr. Harrison Mwakyembe also refused to accept the polling stations total tally and called for a recount.  Like in Rungwe district,  the Kyela District CHADEMA contestant, Abraham Mwanyamati was holding a lead from the first tallying.  The  Kyela District Development Director declared Harrison Mwakyembe winner on the second count but Mwanyamati refused to sign the consent papers.

The CHADEMA Kyela District Chairman Saadat Daudi Sam  told this website the party’s Kyela contestant has said he is going to court to block Mwakyembe  from being declared winner in the parliamentary contest.

The Kyela CHADEMA chairman told this website  the party’s agent during the second count at the district council was forced out of the room and there is widespread belief a box containing  rigged votes was brought into the room when he left the room. The agent was allegedly punched in the face to force him out of the recount room in Kyela.

Rungwe district is in the meantime tense with disagreement.  Police have used tear gas to disperse young men refusing to accept the poling results in which the CCM candidate Sauli Amon has been declared winner amid widespread rumours  the Council wants Sauli to win because they believe he will help them to pay a  Tsh. 700 million debt the council owes to the Seventh Day Adventist church.

The Mbeya Regional Police Commander Ahmed Msangi confirmed Rungwe district was  experiencing ‘disturbances’ caused by disorderly youth refusing to accept their candidates defeat in the parliamentary elections.

Msangi confirmed one three-wheel car (Bajaji) was burned in Tukuyu during  the  disturbances  which have lasted  for  three days from Monday, October  26, 2015. But he said nobody had died from the skirmishes with the police who were attempting to quell the unrest in Tukuyu as rumoured. The police commander pleaded with politicians to stop telling people lies because lies create unrest.