The anticlimax in Kwahani, Zanzibar: participation and multipartism in Tanzania

Abstract

This book is a contribution to the ongoing process towards the establishment of a multiparty democracy in Tanzania. The specific thrust of the current title is on the participation of the newly created political parties in the evolving wider political space using the first elections under the multiparty framework in Zanzibar's Kwahani constituency as a case study. This is depicted as an anticlimax because, as against the pressure for participation which the opposition parties created and the enthusiasm the civil society had prior to the elections, the elections themselves took place within a low ebb after most of the opposition parties withdrew their participation only a few weeks before they were held. The book discusses the underlying explanations behind the withdrawal and their implications towards the evolution of a viable multiparty democratic system in Tanzania. (DÜI-Hff)