allAfrica.com: Tanzania: Anxiety As CCM Top Organ Holds Meeting a Joint Report (Page 1 of 2)

Expectations are high as the top organ of Tanzania's grand old party, the Chama cha Mapinduzi, meets in Butiama - the hometown of the party's founding father, the late Julius Nyerere - where the ruling party is expected to agree to share power with the opposition Civic United Front on the semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar.

If the party endorses the power-sharing deal, it will mark an end to the political conflict sparked by the disputed 2005 polls in Tanzania.

The Civic United Front (CUF) mainly draws its support from the archipelago's Pemba island, with CCM remaining dominant in Unguja, the island more commonly referred to as Zanzibar.

The venue of the meeting - the birthplace of Nyerere - has acquired new political significance for a party undergoing a crisis of confidence amid incessant allegations of corruption and cronyism within its ranks. CCM is presently in the process of reengineering itself, fighting to re-engage with its founding father's policies of thrift and simplicity.

In a conversation with The EastAfrican, the party's publicity secretary, John Chiligati, said the final decision on whether to form a government of national unity between CCM and CUF in Tanzania will have to come from the former's national executive committee (NEC).

Mr Chiligati said the NEC meeting this week will pave the way for long-term discussions on the political accord referred to as Muafaka.

The Muafaka Committee was formed after the botched 2005 elections to find a common ground between the ruling CCM and the opposition CUF.

If the NEC endorses the creation of a government of national unity in Butiama, it would be a fitting memorial for the late founding father of the nation.

This is due to the fact that it was Mwalimu Nyerere who suggested in 1995 that the isles needed such a government in order to put an end to the perennial problems there. Now, 13 years later, his wish could come true.

There were five items for discussion on the agenda of the Muafaka talks. These are the botched 2005 elections and its implications, the right to equal participation in Isles politics, Zanzibar governance issues, strengthening the communication between the two parties by having free and fair elections and the composition of the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (NEC).

Sources told The EastAfrican that the two sides couldn't agree on the first issue regarding the outright winner of the 2005 elections, with each side believing that it won but having different views on whether the elections were free and fair.

The CCM-NEC will also seek members' views on legal steps and disciplinary action to take against three former ministers who were involved in the $170 million Richmond Development Company scandal, in which the company was supposed to supply 100MW power to the national grid.

The NEC committee - which includes Mzee Rashid Kawawa, second Prime Minister of Tanzania, retired presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Benjamin Mkapa - will most likely seek stern measures against the former ministers in President Jakaya Kikwete's government.

The three, Edward Lowassa, former prime minister, Nazir Karamagi, former minister for energy and minerals and Dr Ibrahim Msabaha, former minister for the East African Community, have been called to Butiama to explain what happened and why disciplinary action should not be taken against them.

The meeting in Butiama will be a litmus test for the commitment President Kikwete made to voters to clean up the country's governance. The president is also facing pressure from his own party loyalists and CCM Members of Parliament to take legal action.

Speculation is rife that CCM has split into two camps: one from the northern region supports Lowassa while the other, which includes the powerful CCM Youth Wing, is supporting President Kikwete in his campaign to clean up CCM.

The announcement by CUF that its topmost organ has endorsed the recommendation by the Muafaka Committee for a government of national unity would see the party coming second getting the post of Chief Minister.

CUF secretary general Seif Shariff Hamad said last week that his party would be ready to work "in a government of national unity."

Mr Hamad said that, according to the agreement, after the 2010 elections, Zanzibar will follow the new system of government. He further said that political parties taking part in elections would be included in the government if they attained a certain number of seats.

The two sides also agreed that enhancing the material and financial capacity of the Zanzibar Electoral Commission was crucial.

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