Author: FLORENCE MUGARULA
AfricaPress-Tanzania: ALL eyes and ears will be focused on the country’s capital – Dodoma today, as the ruling party, CCM, launches its election campaigns ahead of the general election scheduled for October 28, this year.
Preparations were in top gear for the whole of yesterday with security being beefed up in various parts of the city.
The historical launching is expected to take place at the Jamhuri Stadium where the stages are already fitted, to accommodate the party’s leaders, candidates, artists and thousands of members, plus wananchi at large.
As of yesterday, businesspersons had yet another reason to smile as they continuously minted cash for a better part of the day.
The ‘Daily News’ witnessed petty traders in various parts of the city busy making some cash from several cadres of CCM who had already arrived for the big event.
A survey conducted in various guest houses and hotels tells it all – that the city was busier than usual, almost all rooms being already occupied or booked from some few days ago.
Likewise, restaurant operators said the demand for food and drinks had skyrocketed.
They said the number of people had been increasing from day to day and that to face the challenge, they had been forced to hire more workers and increase the amount of food.
“It is obvious that the number of customers is increasing, and we are doing our best to maintain quality of our services, in so doing, we hire more workers,” said Mr John Elias, a restaurant manager in the city.
Outside the party’s headquarters, female entrepreneurs were busy selling CCM’s green and yellow shirts, t-shirts and other items ready for the historical event today.
The city was buzzing since Monday as CCM cadres started arriving, to witness the party presidential candidate, Dr John Magufuli returning nomination forms to the National Electoral Commission for endorsement.
Majority of them were seen at the party’s headquarters purchasing green and yellow clothes they are supposed to wear during the crucial events.
Vendors at the party headquarters were busy minting cash bearing in mind that the city was in a festive mood with business booming.
They expressed appreciation to the ruling party for giving them an opportunity to obtain their daily bread.
“We thank God and CCM for these events, we are making some good money,” said Ms Jesca Mlikwa, a businesswoman selling the party’s garments at CCM headquarters, popularly known as White House.
Dodoma’ Central Business District (CBD) temporarily became a city of green and yellow as various popular streets were fully decorated with CCM flags as part of preparations for the party’s meeting.
The party launches the election campaign today seeking for the re-election of President Magufuli amid several achievement recorded over the past five years.
It is on record that the party has managed to implement its 2015-2020 manifestos by fulfilling the promises it made to Tanzanians during the 2015 election campaigns.
In Mining sector, the CCM government has made strides by establishing a joint venture mining firm, Twiga Minerals Corporation Limited, which made the government for the first time in history to legally protect its interests in the mining sector.
Moreover, mining sector has been recorded as a leading growing sector followed by the construction one, It topped other sectors by a growth rate of 17.7 per cent. In 2018/19, the sector earned the country 346bn/- , from 194bn/- of 2016/17.
The revenue further increased to 470bn/- in the 2019/2020 financial year.
On health sector, the CCM government has recorded huge achievements through construction of health centres in various wards across the country, regional and district hospitals and provision of quality health services to millions of Tanzanians.
Moreover, the hiring of health workers, purchasing of modern health equipment and allocation of specialized doctors to various hospitals and health centres across the country.
On the education sector, the CCM government has also fulfilled its promises by offering free education from primary to secondary school level and ensured provision of loans to higher learning institution students.
Furthermore, on economic growth, the CCM government has fulfilled its promise by registering a big step in building an industrial economy.
Tanzania was recently named a middle-economy country, a goal which was initially targeted for 2025 but was attained in 2020. Plus, the government has improved infrastructure.
In compliance with the party’s manifesto, too, the government has engaged in the implementation of big projects such as construction of the Standard gauge railway, fly-overs in Dar es Salaam, bridges and several kilometres of tarmac roads across the country.
When he picked nomination forms in June, this year, President Magufuli said he had decided to seek re-election to enable him to complete unfinished projects that started during his first five-year term.
He gave reasons for seeking the presidential re-election when he spoke shortly after he had submitted forms from over 1,000,000 CCM members from across the country, who have guaranteed him to seek nomination from the party for contesting for the presidency in the October 2020 general elections.
“When I took office in 2015, CCM planned to implement a number of flagship projects. Some of them have been completed and a number of them are still under implementation. My wish is to complete implementation of the unfinished projects in the next five years,” he said.
He mentioned flagship projects that were yet to be completed as including the standard gauge railway, the 2,115 MW Julius Nyerere hydropower in the Rufiji River Basin, an international airport in the capital, Dodoma, and the purchase of a new ship for Lake Tanganyika aimed at boosting trade with Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“I believe with unity and hard work, we can build a modern Tanzania that will benefit every citizen,” Dr Magufuli said.
According to NEC, at least 29,188,347 Tanzanians have registered to vote in this year’s elections. The commission has also allocated a total of 80,155 polling stations across the country for the purpose.
