Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — Over 10 million Tanzanian voters go to the polls Sunday to elect a new head of state, legislature and local government leaders, after being treated to a month of winding rhetoric and much political shoving.

The second multiparty polls after those of 1995 are taking place slightly more than a year after the death of the country's founding president, Julius Nyerere.

Thirteen political parties, including the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), National Convention for Construction and Reform (NCCR-Mageuzi), Union for Multi-party Democracy (UMD), Tanzania People's Party (TPP), the National League for Democracy (NRA), Tanzania Democratic Alliance (TADEA) and the Popular National Party (PONA) have fielded candidates for the various electoral posts.

Incumbent president Benjamin Mkapa, running for a second term, faces no formidable challenge from his three opponents, observers say.

He faces an opposition trio composed of John Cheyo of the United Democratic Party or UDP, Augustine Mrema of the TLP and Ibrahim Lipumba of the Civic United Front or CUF, who also has the backing of the Chama Cha Maendeleo Na Demokrasia or Chadema.

Mkapa was winding up the final leg of his campaign Saturday in Dar es Salaam, where appealed to Tanzanians to reelect him and CCM "to finish the job he began five years ago."

CCM's 2000 election manifesto enumerates Mkapa's successes over the past five years, giving direction as to where the party will head Tanzanians if re-elected to govern the East African nation for another term.

The manifesto is centred on the policy of socialism and self-reliance and targets the economic sector and social services.

It reaffirms the aims of privatisation, which has come under heavy criticism from the opposition, and outlines how the party plans to bring high levels of unemployment down to its knees.

Among Mkapa's successes, the manifesto says, is the country's "sound" economic stability that had recaptured donor confidence, which was lost in the 1980s due to years of economic mismanagement.

"In order to carry out sound economic reforms, it is necessary to have good relations with donor countries and multilateral financial institutions.

"When I assumed power, such relations were in the doldrums but I have managed to restore the country's image in the eyes of the international community," he said in one of his many campaigns.

Other parties too have had their say and it is now up to the masses - the majority being peasants to decide whom they want as leader.

A professor of economics, Ibrahim Lipumba of CUF has said he is the best placed to lead Tanzania. In his last campaign held in Dar es Salaam Friday, Lipumba said: "I am telling you that after touring all the regions of the country, I am sure CUF will win the election and I urge you to vote for me."

He told thousands of partisans - who had to be teargased by riot police after the mammoth rally threatened to turn sour - that if elected, his topmost priority would be to improve agriculture, as increased produce would emancipate the peasants.

UDP's John Cheyo has promised to abolish school fees in public primary schools. He has been emphatic that the country's educational standards, now at an all time low, had been caused by a school fees menace.

"Once the masses pay taxes, there is absolutely no reason to force them to pay school fees," he said.

Cheyo has also talked of privatising land if elected to high office and imposing heavy penalties on those who have been robbing peasants of their hard-earned produce through paying them paltry prices.

"All those who buy crops from farmers on loan will be jailed for 10 years and given 21 strokes of the cane at the end of each year of sentence," he warned at one of his meetings.

Augustine Mrema of the TLP, once a powerful minister in retired President Ali Hassan Mwinyi's government and a CCM zealot, has talked of increasing the country's education budget, and improving the peasants' well being, if elected.

In the 1995 legislative elections, the ruling party obtained 59.2 percent of the popular vote, scooping 80.2 percent of the legislature.

The remaining 19.8 percent of the seats were shared disproportionately between Chadema with 6.2 percent of the votes and 1.3 percent of all seats, CUF with 5.0 percent of the votes and 10.3 percent of the seats and NCCR-Mageuzi that obtained 21.8 percent of the popular vote and only 6.9 percent of the seats.

Teddy Maliyamkono, one of Tanzania's leading academicians has predicted a similar scenario.

Giving president Mkapa a clear win, Maliyamkono, also the Executive Director of the Eastern and Southern African Universities Research Programme (ESAURP), said Mkapa stood a better chance of garnering even more votes than in 1995.

Maliyamkono said: "Without unity, the opposition cannot fight CCM. At present they are not united. In fact, they speak against each other".

Over 250 foreign observers from diverse countries and organisations, including the European Union, Commonwealth, Southern African Development Community, Canada, Japan, Nigeria, Switzerland, the US and the OAU are in the country to monitor the electoral process.