1995 Tanzanian general election

1995 Tanzanian general election

←  1990 29 October 1995 (1995-10-29) 2000  →

Presidential election

Nominee Benjamin Mkapa Augustino Mrema Ibrahim Lipumba Party CCM NCCR–Mageuzi CUF Popular vote 4,026,422 1,808,616 418,973 Percentage 61.82% 27.77% 6.43%

Results by region

President before election Ali Hassan Mwinyi CCM Elected President Benjamin Mkapa CCM

General elections were held in Tanzania on 29 October. ^[1] They were the first multi-party general elections after the lifting of the ban on political parties other than Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) in 1992. Howevr, the results were declared null and void by the National Electoral Commission due to failures to provide ballots to many polling places. ^[2] As a result, the elections were re-run on 29 November.

The CCM retained its control of the country, with its candidate Benjamin Mkapa winning the presidential election, and the party winning 186 of the 232 directly-elected seats in the National Assembly. Voter turnout was 77% of the 8,929,969 registered voters.

Electoral sytstem

The National Assembly consisted of 232 directly-elected seats (182 on the mainland and 50 on Zanzibar), 37 seats for women MPs allocated based on the proportion constituency seats won, five members were elected by the House of Representatives of Zanzibar and ten members nominated by the President. The Attorney General was also an ex-officio member, resulting in a total of 285 MPs.

Conduct

The election was characterized by irregularities. ^[3]

In Zanzibar there was widespread allegations of vote-rigging, with the ruling CCM Zanzibar presidential candidate Salmin Amour being declared the victor by a margin of less than 1%. In protest, the losing candidate from the Zanzibar-based Civic United Front (CUF), Seif Shariff Hamad, refused to recognise Amour as president. The CUF boycotted the new government, resulting in 18 of their members being arrested and charged with treason. In June 1999 an agreement was reached between the CCM and the CUF, which led to an end of the CUF boycott. ^[4]

Results

President

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Benjamin Mkapa	Chama Cha Mapinduzi	4,026,422	61.82
	Augustino Mrema	NCCR–Mageuzi	1,808,616	27.77
	Ibrahim Lipumba	Civic United Front	418,973	6.43
	John Cheyo	United Democratic Party	258,734	3.97
Total			6,512,745	100.00
Valid votes			6,512,745	95.12
Invalid/blank votes			333,936	4.88
Total votes			6,846,681	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			8,929,969	76.67
Source: EISA, African Elections Database

National Assembly

Party		Votes	%	Seats
				Constitutency	Women	Total
	Chama Cha Mapinduzi	3,814,206	59.22	186	28	214
	NCCR–Mageuzi	1,406,343	21.83	16	3	19
	Chadema	396,825	6.16	3	1	4
	Civic United Front	323,432	5.02	24	4	28
	United Democratic Party	213,547	3.32	3	1	4
	Tanzania Democratic Alliance	76,636	1.19	0	0	0
	National Reconstruction Alliance	60,707	0.94	0	0	0
	Union for Multiparty Democracy	41,257	0.64	0	0	0
	Tanzania Labour Party	27,963	0.43	0	0	0
	National League for Democracy	26,666	0.41	0	0	0
	United People's Democratic Party	19,841	0.31	0	0	0
	Popular National Party	18,155	0.28	0	0	0
	Progressive Party of Tanzania – Maendeleo	15,335	0.24	0	0	0
Presidential appointees				–	–	10
Elected by Zanzibar House of Representatives				–	–	5
Attorney-General				–	–	1
Total		6,440,913	100.00	232	37	285
Valid votes		6,440,913	94.07
Invalid/blank votes		405,768	5.93
Total votes		6,846,681	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,929,969	76.67
Source: EISA

References

1. Richey, Lisa; Ponte, Stefano (1996). "The 1995 Tanzania Union Elections". Review of African Political Economy. 23 (67): 80–87. ISSN   0305-6244.
2. "Election Watch". Journal of Democracy. 7 (1). 1996. ISSN   1086-3214.
3. Mwase, Ngila; and Raphael, Mary (2001). "The 1995 presidential elections in Tanzania" . The Round Table. 90 (359): 245–269. doi:10.1080/00358530120050099. ISSN   0035-8533.
4. ""The Bullets Were Raining": The January 2001 Attack on Peaceful Demonstrators in Zanzibar". Human Rights Watch. 10 April 2002. Retrieved 4 November 2025.