{Tanzania’s opposition parties \u2013 which have grouped under the UKAWA coalition \u2013 on Thursday agreed to field a candidate for the country’s presidential election, slated for October.}<\/p>\n
“We have agreed 100 percent to have one presidential candidate for the next election,” coalition secretary Wilbrod Slaa told Anadolu Agency.<\/p>\n
He added that coalition parties have also reached an agreement on most candidates for the parliamentary election in October.<\/p>\n
Slaa, a presidential candidate himself for Chadema Party in the 2010 election, said the coalition would declare the name of its presidential candidate on Aug. 14.<\/p>\n
The UKAWA coalition was formed in Dodoma \u2013 Tanzania’s administrative capital \u2013 in 2014 with the goal of pushing for constitutional reform in the African state.<\/p>\n
Chadema chief, Freeman Mbowe, said the opposition would stand united during the next presidential election.<\/p>\n
“This coalition is totally and actually one of the longtime cries from common Tanzanians since the multiparty system was introduced in 1995,” Mbowe said.<\/p>\n
“No way we can go against people’s will,” he told Anadolu Agency.<\/p>\n
Coalition party chiefs say their unity aimed to remove the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi Party \u2013 which ruled the country for more than three decades now \u2013 from power.<\/p>\n
“We are up to it,” James Mbatia, the head of the opposition NCCR\u2013Mageuzi Party, said.<\/p>\n
“We have agreed on the give and take principle to remove the ruling party from power,” he added.<\/p>\n
Political analysts, meanwhile, say the opposition coalition will not be an easy nut for the ruling party to crack.<\/p>\n
“In the last four general elections, the ruling party has been winning with a very small margin from other political parties,” Paul Rwechungura said.<\/p>\n
“This time it [the ruling party] might go because it has been scoring less votes, compared to those won by opposition parties in total,” he added.<\/p>\n
The ruling party says, however, that it will not lose the next election to the coalition.<\/p>\n
“The coalition does not represent any threat to us,” party secretary Nnape Mnauye told Anadolu Agency. “We have more than 50 years of experience in politics.”<\/p>\n
He said his party will win the next election as it did in the past.<\/p>\n
“Let’s wait for October to come,” he said confidently<\/p>\n
World Bulletin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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