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Zanzibar votes to install unity government

  1. Posted on Friday 30 July 2010 - 11:40
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    By Ryekolal Raphie AfricaNews reporter in Kampala,Uganda
    Zanzibar-Tanzania's politically volatile Zanzibar island votes in a referendum Saturday to install a power-sharing government aimed at ending the archipelago's persistent election unrest.

    According to the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM - Revolutionary party) and the main opposition Civic United Front (CUF) are backing the deal and have called on voters to endorse it.

    A new form of government would see Zanzibar have a president with two deputies. The first vice president would be from the party which comes second in the polls and the second from the winning party.

    Zanzibar President Amani Karume told a gathering this week that "Vote 'yes' in the referendum so that we remain united. We need to work together and heal hatred caused by unnecessary political conflicts after every general election".

    And "We need to build our country which has been ruined by the prolonged conflicts. I hope that the majority people of Zanzibar will vote 'yes',"he added.

    Some 400 000 voters have been registered to take part in Saturday's referendum, whose results are to be announced two days later. Observers from the European Union and the US will monitor the exercise and Zanzibar has a population of about 1.2 million people.

    Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete deplored the perennial enmity between the Zanzibar parties, which he said had also divided the society.

    "People of the same island and even clan stopped talking to each other," he recently told parliament.
    End

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