The Cornell Participatory Action Research Network <PARnet@cornell.edu>
MIT Political Participation Project <ppp-list@ai.mit.edu>
European Commission's Information Society Project Office (ISPO) Discussion list on ELECTRONIC DEMOCRACY <el-democracy @www.ispo.cec.be>
Political Science Reserach and Teaching
<PSRT-L@mizzou1.missouri.edu>
From: mjm@berlin.snafu.de (michael macpherson)
Subject: Tanzania elections
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Michael Macpherson,
Psycho-Social and Medical Research PSAMRA,
Derfflingerstrase 17,
10785 Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany.
tel.: +49 30 262 3768
e-mail: mjm@berlin.snafu.de
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"TANZANIA ELECTIONS"
(LONGER VERSIONS MAY BE FOUND BELOW. YOU MAY SCROLL THE PAGE OR CLICK ON THE HYPERTEXT LINKS)
§ Date: Sat, 20 Apr 1996
From: "WIESEMANN,SUSANNE,MS" <BKMD@MUSICB.MCGILL.CA>
have you tried the Institute for African Affairs in Hamburg?
LONGER VERSION
§ Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996
From: "Marion E. Doro" <medor@conncoll.edu> (Prof. government, Connecticut)
See Africa Research Bulletin for January or Feb '96.
§ Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 10:23
From: "Marion E. Doro" <medor@conncoll.edu>
Am interested in your interest in the Tanzanian elections. I was a UN
Observer for the Oct and then Nov elections in Dar while teaching during
Fall Term at the Univ of Dar es Salaam......What kind of research are you
doing?
§ From: mjm@berlin.snafu.de (michael macpherson) 23 April 1996
Dear Marion Doro,
I have done research on how children and youth respond to and cope (or do not) with global political and environmental problems and
LONGER VERSION
§ From: KUSFTB@vms2.uni-c.dk (Prof. Tom Bryder, political scientist, Copenhagen)
Try CIA world fact book on interactive http page.
§ Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996
X-Sender: mlofchie@pop.sscnet.ucla.edu (Prof. Mike Lofchie)
These results are available, but I am afraid I have no idea how to obtain them. There is a Tanzania Electoral Commission (TEMCO) but I have no
LONGER VERSION
§ From: James Patterson <ehrf@link.be>
To: "'michael macpherson'" <mjm@berlin.snafu.de>
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 13:31:38 +-200
This is from the US Department of State 1995 Report on Human Rights
LONGER VERSION
§ Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1996
From: "Marion E. Doro" <medor@conncoll.edu>
To: michael macpherson <mjm@berlin.snafu.de>
Meantime, my interest in elections turns more on behavior rather than
LONGER VERSION
LONGER VERSIONS OF E-MAIL CORRESPONDENCE
Date: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 22:26:16 EDT
From: "WIESEMANN,SUSANNE,MS" <BKMD@MUSICB.MCGILL.CA>
To: <mjm@berlin.snafu.de>
Subject: Re: Tanzania elections
Hi, Michael,
have you tried the Institute for African Affairs in Hamburg?
(Institut fuer Afrika-Kunde, Neuer Jungfernstieg, Hamburg)
they usually have the most comprehensive data available
their e-mail adress is: iak@hwwa.uni-hamburg.de.
otherwise, try Keasing's contemporary archives, they should have that
in the Berlin central library.
Susanne
McGill University, Montreal
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 14:12:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Marion E. Doro" <medor@conncoll.edu>
See Africa Research Bulletin for January or Feb '96.
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 10:23:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Marion E. Doro" <medor@conncoll.edu>
Am interested in your interest in the Tanzanian elections. I was a UN
Observer for the Oct and then Nov elections in Dar while teaching during
Fall Term at the Univ of Dar es Salaam......What kind of research are you
doing?
To: "Marion E. Doro" <medor@conncoll.edu>
From: mjm@berlin.snafu.de (michael macpherson) 23 April 1996
Dear Mario Doro,
I have done research on how children and youth respond to and cope (or do not) with global political and environmental problems and threats. Part of this went into development of political behaviour.
Also, thinking about and researching "facing threats" caused me to learn more about mental trauma and how peple cope with extreme experiences. As a physician, i know something about trauma. Sticking with the political context, i organised some (preliminary) research done by psychotherapists from eastern Europe and USSR. What are the long term effects of the different aspects of the political oppression which occurred there?
For about a year i have been looking into how "citizen participation" in government might be developed. Rather sceptical about the role of computers and new mass media, i have started a debate in the Internet in polsci, polpsych and democracy discussion lists. Quite successful. Till now, research which i might do in this field exists only as a sketched proposal.
Deliberately i have tried to limit research and discourse about "citizen-democracy" to the "rich industrialised countries". But i am very interested in what is going on elsewhere, where the going is rougher. I have friends in Tanzania. Last year, during a brief, my first visit to Tanzania and Africa i visited a number of "locals" in Dar trying to find out what the conditions in the refugee camps were like, mainly focussing on the question of how extreme trauma could be helped. I'm also interested in the society and politics, but until now that is only a concerned interest, not a research one.
Sincerely,
Michael Macpherson
From: KUSFTB@vms2.uni-c.dk
Date: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 07:11:38 +0100
Try CIA world fact book on interactive http page. I think you can find the address by going to webcrawler.com, and then search for CIA.
--Best wishes Tom
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 08:36:12 -0700 (PDT)
X-Sender: mlofchie@pop.sscnet.ucla.edu
These results are available, but I am afraid I have no idea how to obtain them. There is a Tanzania Electoral Commission (TEMCO) but I have no idea what their address is. The results have been posted outside a press office downtown, the site formerly occupied by the USIA library, but I guess that doesn't do much good. You might also try Ms. Kiki Munshi, Public Affairs Officer, USIA, Dar es Salaam. Best Wishes, Mike Lofchie
From: James Patterson <ehrf@link.be>.
To: "'michael macpherson'" <mjm@berlin.snafu.de>
Subject: RE: Tanzania elections
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 13:31:38 +-200
This is from the US Department of State 1995 Report on Human Rights
(the full text is available via www/gopher)
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
Change Their Government
For the first time in more than 30 years, Tanzanians exercised their
right to change their government through national elections for
president and parliament which were held between October 29 and November 19. A multiparty political system had been in place since 1992. The CCM retained control of the presidency and Parliament, winning 186 out of 232 parliamentary seats and 61.8 percent of the presidential vote on the mainland. The CCM retained huge advantages over opposition parties in membership and access to resources including its own daily Swahili-language newspaper (see Section 2.a.). The Government also employed tactics to restrict or delay activities of opposition parties during the campaign. Despite these problems, opposition candidates made credible challenges in many districts and for president. Voting was completed without violence or major disruption, although two people were killed in incidents that may have been campaign related.
After widespread problems with the distribution of ballots on election
day, the Government nullified the elections in seven Dar es Salaam
constituencies and held new elections in these constituencies on
November 19. Opposition parties demanded that the elections be
nullified nationwide and boycotted the rerun elections in Dar Es Salaam.
Most international and local observers, while noting the problems with
the distribution of ballots, expressed overall satisfaction with the
conduct of the elections.
The Constitution of Zanzibar allows citizens the right to change
peacefully their government; however, observers raised serious doubts
about the accuracy of the outcome of the presidential election on
Zanzibar. This contest between CCM incumbent Dr. Salim Amour Juma and Seif Sharif Hamad of the opposition CUF was particularly close and
contentious. CCM intimidated and harassed the opposition, and did not
allow opposition rallies until 2 months prior to elections. Government-
owned radio and television on Zanzibar were biased in favor of CCM (see
Section 2.a.). Also, voter registration was limited to individuals who
had maintained the same residence for 5 years, which disenfranchised
many voters. CUF members were also detained by police when they
attempted to campaign in rural areas.
On election day, voting was completed without significant problems.
However, after the election, observers were denied access to the
tabulation of votes from the polling stations. After 4 days, the
Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC), appointed by the Amour government, announced that Amour had defeated Hamad by 1,565 votes out of a total of 328,977. Totals tabulated by CUF showed a similarly narrow victory for Hamad. After efforts by the international community to reconcile discrepancies in the vote counting, observers concluded that the official results may have been inaccurate. Although these discrepancies were brought to the attention of Union President Mwinyi, he took no action before Dr. Amour was inaugurated as President of Zanzibar for a new 5-year term.
Following the announcement of the CCM victory, there were credible
reports that government security forces and CCM gangs harassed and
intimidated CUF members on both of the two main Zanzibar islands, Pemba and Ugunja. Because CUF won all 20 Zanzibar seats in Pemba, Pembans living on Ugunja were regarded as CUF supporters and as a result were harassed. CUF members accused police of detaining dozens of its members including several local leaders. Some CUF supporters on Ugunja felt threatened and reportedly moved their families to Pemba or the mainland.
There are no restrictions in law on the participation of women in
politics and government. However, in practice few women are politically active. Eight of 232 elected members of the Union Parliament are women. An additional 37 women from both the CCM and opposition parties were appointed to Parliament to seats reserved for women. Three of the Cabinet's 23 ministers are women.
You might also check some of these URLs that came up on a quick search:
http://www.usbol.com/ctjournal/Vol3/WorldNews/Africa/tanzania.html
http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~hschottm/tanzania.html
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 20:17:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Marion E. Doro" <medor@conncoll.edu>
Subject: Re:citizen participation
To: michael macpherson <mjm@berlin.snafu.de>
Interested in your various concerns. Can share one aspect with you re:
citizen participation in Tanzania based on speculation and intuition
(reasonably informed). Citizen participation in Tanzania affected by
several factors: (1) 30 and more years of authoritarian socialism which
insist it could provide answers/services etc, (2) failure to perform that
(3) led citizens to begin to provide for their own needs in small ways
locally...which (4) led to some demands on government for either
"accountability" or alternatively to allow them to create their own civic
units; (5) government not able to prevent units from creating their own
services and indeed had to begin to listen to them even if not capable of
responding either negatively or positively. Some groups, esp women's
groups concerned with such things as maternity clincs, child
welfare/nutrition, education, had long term grassroots
organizations/networking have emerged as leaders, not too well
publicized and indeed exercising influence with care because (1) of the
passive political culture, and (2) intelligent husbanding of limited
resources. Are influential all the same. But, this form of behavior
difficult to track because it does not tend to seek publiclity.. seeks
results not sensationalism. Probably other groups following similar
modes of quiet but effective citizen participation. Western observers
often fail to see this mode of behavior because they expect more
observerable actions. This very brief, sketchy outline suggests a mode
of citizen participation we do not see often in West. Good luck with
your research. Interested in your "democracy discussion" especially
since each society/culture has its own notions about "participation"
etc. I am a prof of govt at connecticut college, with long term
interests in Africa. [just intended to identify where Im coming from] Re
election returns; no question that the election results in Zanzibar were
rigged. But, on mainland much of the difficulty stemmed from burdening the inefficient infrastructure with too many sophisticated electoral procedures.......literally lack of good roads, functional cars, ordinary services, and shortage of competent supervisiors caused many problems. Could have been worse but for the good will and hard work of many dedicated Tanzanian citizens. stay in touch ? marion e. doro
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1996 19:59:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Marion E. Doro" <medor@conncoll.edu>
To: michael macpherson <mjm@berlin.snafu.de>
(.......)
Meantime, my interest in elections turns more on behavior rather than
statistics, thus my response to you. Will be interested in responses
from others. "First" democratic elections are of some significance, but
need several follow-ups to see if succeeding elections result in a
pattern of behavior which supports some form of democratic behavior --
not necessarily required to be consistent with specific forms we see in
US or UK or elsewhere, but whether they do require some form of
"accountability" or other manifestations of democratic behavior.
(.......)
comments please to:
Michael Macpherson e-mail: mjm@berlin.snafu.de
World Wide Web address of this document: http://www.snafu.de/~mjm/tz/digest.html
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