ZANZIBAR, Tanzania, Nov 7 (AFP) - The long-ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party won a majority of the contested seats in Zanzibar's legislature, the electoral commission said here Tuesday.
Of the 50 seats filled by election in Zanzibar's House of Representatives, the CCM won 34, against 16 for the main opposition party the Civic United Front (CUF), according to Idrissa Jecha, spokesman for the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC).
Citing massive electoral irregularities, the opposition in this semi-autonomous offshore Tanzanian state has said it will not recognise results of internationally condemned elections nor take up any positions resulting from them.
Results of the Zanzibar presidency -- almost certain to go to the CCM's Amani Abeid Karume -- were due out later Tuesday.
An additional 10 of the legislature's seats are filled by presidential appointment, five go to government-appointed regional commissioners, 10 to women on a party basis in proportion to the elected seats and one goes to the attorney general.
Five of the CCM's seats are in Pemba, one of two islands making up Zanzibar and an opposition stronghold where the party previously had no seats.
All of the CUF's 16 seats were in Pemba, and the party is not expected to win any seats at all on Zanzibar's main island of Unguja.
The two seats the CUF did have in Unguja before the polls were among 16 constituencies where voting was repeated Sunday without the participation of the opposition which had demanded a rerun across Zanzibar.
A two-thirds majority in the house would give the CCM the necessary quorum and enable changes to the constitution.
"The election in Zanzibar is a revolutionary election, not a democratic one," CUF Vice-Chairman Shaban Khamis Mloo said Monday.
"We have given up all local government, House of Representatives and (Tanzanian union) parliament seats. We are not going to recognise anything unless the election is rerun" across Zanzibar, he told journalists.
Mloo said that even if CUF emerged victorious in Zanzibar's presidential race, it would not take up the post.
"They have broken the law, tampered with the constitution and used maximum force with the police and army to make CCM win," Mloo said.
Asked what instructions CUF leaders had given their supporters, Mloo said they had been told to be "calm and quiet and wait for our directive." "The situation is rather boiling," he said. "We are trying to speak to (our) extreme members. We don't know whether we will be successful." He added that CUF leaders would meet next week to decide on their next move.
![[Documents menu]](../bin/bk.gif)