General elections were held in

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 islan ...

on 25 October 2015 alongside the 2015 Tanzanian general elections. Incumbent president of Zanzibar

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 ...

was running for his second term against Zanzibar First Vice President

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 (C ...

. Following the vote, the Zanzibar election commission annulled the elections citing irregularities and a rerun was held on 20 March 2016.

Candidates

Presidential Election

There were 14 candidates that qualified to run for the presidential election in 2016.

House of Representatives Election

There were 180 candidates from various parties fighting for 54 electable seats in the

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 ...

Results

The votes of the elections were annulled by the Zanzibar Election Commission, citing irregularities in the process and put forward a recommendation for a re-run that was held in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

. However, only local Zanzibar election results were annulled, the annulment, did not affect the overall outcome of the national presidential elections, meaning that the same ballots that were disqualified for the Zanzibari election were still included in the national count.

Reactions

Domestic

* Various large opposition members mainly of the political alliance called Ukawa denounced the decision by the Election commission to annul the election, citing it was done to steal the election in favour of CCM.

International

* United States: The US Embassy in Dar es Salaam said that they were “gravely alarmed” by the annulment and requested the decision be overturned. * : A joint statement by the Heads of Election Observer Missions in Tanzania that included members from the

Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the ...

, African Union,

Southern African Development Community The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security coopera ...

expressed concern in the decision by the election commission of Zanzibar and requested the show increased transparency in their decision to annul the elections.

References

{{Zanzibari elections 2015 elections in Tanzania 2015 October 2015 events in Africa 2015