Author: FLORENCE MUGARULA
AfricaPress-Tanzania: CCM will now change its campaign tactics as election fever grips the nation. This is despite internal research showing the party’s candidates are above other aspirants of opposition parties.
CCM maintains that even if elections were to be held on September 23, this month, its presidential candidate Dr John Magufuli would have garnered 89.5 per cent while MPs would have collected 80 per cent of all votes.
The party’s head of ideology and publicity Humphrey Polepole told reporters here yesterday that so far the oldest party in the country is recording better performance in its campaigns and that “we expect a landslide victory” in the October polls.
He said the CCM’s assessment on the ongoing campaign shows huge victory ahead of the polls.
“Everything is in the right track and that the party has recorded a magnificent performance,” Polepole said confidently.
He said a report released by the party’s special research unit recently shows that if elections were held last Wednesday, the CCM presidential candidate would have got 89.5 per cent of the total votes while CCM MPs would get 80 per cent of the votes across the country.
According to him, CCM will apply one strategy after another as the voting date draws closer.
Now CCM has started using a helicopter in its campaigns mainly to reach all areas on time.
“We are very strategic and the pressure will keep increas ing as we approach the election date. This is just a curtain raiser, more things are still to come,” he said.
Recently, CCM Secretary General Dr Bashiru Ally said that the campaigns will be conducted in six phases under the party’s special arrangement and that the pressure will keep increasing as the polling day approaches.
Yesterday, Polepole also said his party is eagerly waiting for the opposition to unite under one presidential candidate in their bid to challenge Dr Magufuli.
“No matter what they are planning, the CCM will emerge victorious,” Polepole said, adding, “We will be grateful to see the opposition uniting, we want to record a landslide victory when they are all together.”
The publicity secretary said that the electoral body, the National Electoral Commission’s decision to clear around 120 oppositions candidates to vie for various elective positions after they were dropped on not meeting criteria does not change anything on CCM’s intention to win the general election.
The NEC, he said, has acted wisely on them, adding that if the laws, rules and regulations had been followed as required, the majority of them would not have been cleared.
“There are some who did not make it even after NEC reviewed their documents, and they are making a lot of noise as if someone has deliberately dropped their names,” he said.
“The point I am trying to make here is that NEC’s decision will not change anything regarding our victory. I insist that we are going to win this election.”
Polepole lambasted the opposition claims that the Fifth Phase Government purchased brand new aircrafts without following procurement procedures, saying “they were not aware of what transpired during the business.”
He said all procedures were followed and that the matter was presented in Parliament and everything is recorded in the parliament session Hansard.
“So far air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) is doing great in terms of business… it employs over 400 people and it has managed to settle 30bn/- debt within a short time,” he said.
According to him, the company has also got unqualified statement in the Controller and Audit General (CAG) report.
“ATCL is from zero to hero, in 2015 the company had only one aircraft, today we are talking about 11 aircrafts, eight are already here and three are coming. This is a great development although some people do not like to accept truth,” he noted.
On the construction of airports, Polepole said some politicians had been using Chato airport to mislead the public.
He said Chato airport stands for Geita region airport just like any others that have been built and expanded across the country.
Such projects are going on in various regions, including Dodoma, Tabora, Musoma, Mwanza and many other regions, Polepole noted.
Commenting on the progress of Zanzibar campaigns, Polepole said so far the Zanzibar presidential candidate Dr Hussein Mwinyi is doing a commendable job.
“We are well organised, Dr Mwinyi is continuing to win the hearts of the Zanzibar electorate, the party’s cadres are everywhere campaigning; we are telling people what we did in the past five years, and we show what is in our 303- page election manifesto for the coming five years,” he noted.
