The central committee of the ruling party, CCM, finished its meeting at midnight and came up with five names that would be seconded to the national executive committee for voting today, Saturday.
Ideology and Publicity secretary Nape Nnauye told reporters soon after the meeting that the names of the five aspirants approved by the party would not be made public but will be taken directly to the NEC meeting scheduled to start at 10am today, Saturday.
“Because the nomination process is ongoing we will not disclose the names of five aspirants, which will be taken directly to the NEC meeting for voting to get three names. The three names will then be taken to the national congress later in the afternoon,” Mr Nnauye noted.
However sources privy to proceedings of the meeting said the names of five approved presidential aspirants include January Makamba, Asha Rose Migiro, Amina Salum Ali, John Magufuli and Bernard Membe.
This was later confirmed when CCM tweeted the five names in its official twitter handle (@ccm_tanzania ). The twitter was also reflected in the party’s website ww.ccm.org.tz.
The fallout
Immediately after Mr Nnauye’s media briefing three members of the central committee who attended the meeting- Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi, Adam Kimbisa and Sophia Simba- told journalists that they opposed the nomination procedures that were used to come up with the five names because the procedures were in violation of the party’s constitution.
The visibly agitated Nchimbi said the CCM constitution demands that the names of all aspirants who returned nomination forms be tabled in the central committee meeting, which then vets them and comes up with five names.
But it seems the Ethics and Security committee meeting which met in the afternoon on Friday did the vetting and came up with few names.
“We hereby declare that we do not agree on the decisions of the meetings because the party’s regulations and constitution, which say that the central committee is the first meeting to start vetting aspirants in the nomination process, have been violated,” Mr Nchimbi noted.
He added; “We informed the meeting that we do not agree with the decision reached because it also violates a section of the constitution that says the central committee would give special consideration to the front-runner or front runners in the nomination contest.”
The three central committee members are believed to be supporters of former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa, who has been the clear front runner from the beginning of the process. Mr Lowassa who resigned as Prime Minister in the wake of the Richmond scandal in February 2008 attracted huge crowds in his campaign events and collected hundreds of thousands of endorsements from party members instead of the 400 required to qualify for nomination.
However, he faced allegations of spending too much money in his campaigns and of bribing party members to support him. He has defended himself saying the money he spent on his bid for nomination is from his friends and that he has conducted a clean campaign.
“Anyone who has evidence that I bribed CCM members to support me let him come forward. I have conducted a clean campaign and I am innocent,” he told reporters on July 1 here in Dodoma after he had submitted nomination forms.
His seeming involvement in the Richmond, which led to his resignation from office, has continued to haunt him. It has given ammunition to his opponents who have portrayed him as a corrupt politician.
The Richmond scandal involved serious irregularities in the tendering process of emergence power supply following biting power shortages of 2006.
The company that was given the tender to supply the emergence electricity was the the US-based Richmond Development Company. But it soon proved to be unable to meet deadlines and was later found, after an investigation by a Parliamentary Select Committee, to be a briefcase company.
Though not directly implicated, Mr Lowassa resigned out of political responsibility.
What next for CCM
Opposing decisions taken by the powerful but secretive central committee is unprecedented and shows how stiff competition in this year’s nomination process is.
It also indicates that things are set to become worse and the the rift created by eliminating Mr Lowassa from the nomination process could intensify. Unconfirmed reports say members of NEC who support the former Premier plan to move a motion of no confidence with the chairman of CCM President Jakaya Kikwete and his central committee during the NEC meeting today Saturday. The CCM constitution gives NEC members powers to dismiss the chairman of the party and some members of NEC want to attempt to dissolve the central committee and appoint new members.
Today Saturday is perhaps going to be the most crucial day in the history of CCM as the party and the camp of the most powerful member battle it out.
It is left to Mr Kikwete to employ all his politician capital to manage the fallout and save the party.
The national executive committee (NEC) is the highest decision making organ which, according to Article 107(13)(f) selects 14 members of the central committee. The rest of the members of the central committee qualify for the membership because of their positions in the party.
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