Houses of Zanzibar ruling party set ablaze as rerun polls near
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (Xinhua) — As the countdown to Zanzibar’s March 20 re-run elections began, unknown arsonists yersterday set fire to facilities belonging to members of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) on Pemba Island.
Mohamed Shakani, South Pemba regional police commissioner, said a group of unidentified people set ablaze houses of CCM members, 11 meeting places and a health centre, adding that nobody was injured.
Shakani said one suspect he identified as Mohamed Ramadhan Seif, had been arrested in connection with the grisly incident.
“Preliminary investigations have revealed that the arsonists sprinkled some petrol to the houses along Kibirizi Street in Chake Chake Pemba together with two meeting centres at Kiwani and Mwambe villages in South Pemba before they set them on fire,” Shakani said, adding that hunting for the arsonists was underway.
Zanzibar’s Minister of State in the Second Vice-President’s Office Mohamed Aboud Mohamed, visited the scenes and asked the villagers to help expose the suspects.
“The Government will make sure that the election will be held under peaceful atmosphere, and anyone intending to disrupt peace will face the strong arm of the Government,” Aboud said.
The rerun elections come after the nullification of the October 25 election results by the chairman of the Zanzibar Electoral Commission, Salim Jecha Salim, on grounds of irregularities.
The main opposition party, the Civic United Front, which claimed victory in the polls, and a few other opposition parties, have said they would not participate in the repeat polls.