AfricaPress-Tanzania: ATMOSPHERE of calm and peace prevailed in three constituencies of Temeke, Mbagala and Kigamboni in Dar es Salaam as voters turned out in big numbers to vote.
Similar scenarios were also seen in other constituencies of Ubungo, Kinondoni, Ukongo, Segerea and Kibamba in the City, where voters at various polling stations queued systematically to vote with security officers standing around for any eventuality.
Dar es Salaam Special Zone Police Commander, Lazaro Mambosasa said only Kawe constituency, witnessed some minor hiccup after Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo contestant, Ms Halima Mdee, viciously protested the election procedures.
However, Commander Mambosasa said they were forced to briefly whisk her (Mdee) away and educate her on election procedures.
“In fact, we did not arrest her…what we did was to take her away and help her understand the procedures. She was yelling around, pointing at some people who carried their own bags, which had nothing to do with the whole election process. It was simply uncivilised act from a person of her caliber to behave that way,” said RPC Mambosasa.
By around noon, most polling stations were only receiving few voters, who could not show up in the morning, fearing big queues.
Temeke Municipal Director Lusubilo Mwakabibi, who was an Election Supervisor for Temeke and Mbagala constituencies, told the ‘Daily News’ that the two constituencies witnessed big numbers of voters in comparison to all other constituencies in Dar es Salaam.
The two constituencies have over 900,000 registered voters, Mr Mwakabibi noted, adding that between 80 and 90 per cent of them turned out for the exercise before noon in a total of 2213 polling stations.
“The big number of voters turned up in the morning because they wanted to cast their votes and continue with their other activities,” Mr Mwakabibi stated.
He said peace and security prevailed as most residents only focused on casting their votes and disappearing from the polling stations.
“We haven’t seen chaos anywhere…there is happiness and even contestants were seen together and discussing other issues, I have spoken with parties’ agents and they told me that they opted for peace,” he explained.
In Kigamboni constituency, the situation was similar as election supervisor Erasto Kiwale confirmed that many people showed up in the morning at different centres. Mr Kiwale said the Kigamboni constituency has a total of over 170,000 voters registered in 417 centres.
“I have witnessed big numbers of voters at polling stations in the morning,” he said, noting that there was peace in all of them.
