General elections were held in Zanzibar on 28 October 2020 alongside the Tanzanian general elections to elect the President and National Assembly of the Semi-autonomous state of

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...

. Voters elect the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Zanzibar House of Representatives The Zanzibar House of Representatives is the unicameral, subnational legislature of the autonomous islands of Zanzibar in Tanzania. History The current legislature was formed in 1980. Prior to this, the Revolutionary Council held both the execu ...

and local government councillors. By convention, the election was held on the last Wednesday of October and is supervised by the Zanzibar Election Commission. The incumbent president,

Ali Mohamed Shein Ali Mohamed Shein (born 13 March 1948) was the 7th President of Zanzibar, from 2010 to 2020. He was previously Vice President of Tanzania from 2001 to 2010. Shein is originally from the island of Pemba, and he is a member of the ruling Chama Ch ...

, is ineligible to be elected to a third term because of

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...

s and will be stepping down as president. The president of Zanzibar is the third highest position in the Union government of Tanzania.

Background

Elections in Zanzibar have often been contentious. The ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi has maintained a government within the isles since independence and has never lost an election. The opposition has continually accused the government of cheating their way through the elections and almost every election has resulted in post-election violence. Said violence in 2015 was most heated after the electoral commission's controversial annulment of the elections, citing irregularities. A rerun was held in 2016, however, but the opposition had boycotted the election, giving the ruling party a landslide victory.

Presidential candidates

Chama Cha Mapinduzi

With incumbent president

constitutionally bared for a third term, the CCM ticket for presidency was hotly contested. Dr

Hussein Mwinyi Hussein Ali Mwinyi (born in Unguja 23 December 1966) is the 8th president of Zanzibar. The son of former Tanzanian president Ali Hasan Mwinyi, he is a member of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) political party. Presidency 2020 Election ''Link t ...

won the nomination against 31 candidates at the CCM party congress held on July 20, 2020.

Opposition

Seif Sharif Hamad Seif Sharif Hamad (22 October 1943 – 17 February 2021) was a Tanzanian politician who served as the First Vice President of Zanzibar and as Party Chairman of ACT Wazalendo. He was the secretary-general of the opposition Civic United Front (CU ...

, will be running for a 6th time for the presidency of Zanzibar, however, under the

Alliance for Change and Transparency The Alliance for Change and Transparency (), sometimes known as the ACT–Wazalendo, is the third-largest political party in Tanzania. It received its permanent registration in May 2014. Background The party was founded in 2014. The party fielde ...

ticket after he left

Civic United Front The Civic United Front (CUF; sw, Chama Cha Wananchi, ) is a liberal party in Tanzania. Although nationally based, most of the CUF's support comes from the Zanzibar islands of Unguja and Pemba. The party is a member of Liberal International. His ...

in March 2019. ACT-Wazalendo held their central committee elections on 5 August 2020. The party's 420 central committee members nominated Seif Hamad with 99.76% vote as the Zanzibar presidential candidate. Hamad ran unopposed and only 1 member of the committee cast a vote against Mr Hamad.

Voters

The total number of voters registered in Zanzibar are 448,482, which is a decrease of 55,300 from the 2015 elections. It is estimated that almost 120,000 voters were unable to register due to Zanzibar ID Document requirements.

References

{{Zanzibari elections

Elections in Tanzania