{"id":20997,"date":"2015-11-03T06:50:21","date_gmt":"2015-11-03T06:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/clerics-call-for-calm-in-zanzibar\/"},"modified":"2015-11-03T06:49:45","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T06:49:45","slug":"clerics-call-for-calm-in-zanzibar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/clerics-call-for-calm-in-zanzibar\/","title":{"rendered":"Clerics call for calm in Zanzibar"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Clerics have called for peace as political uncertainty looms over the Isles following a standoff involving the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC), CCM leaders and Civic United Front (CUF) presidential candidate Seif Sharif Hamad over the nullification of the general election here.}<\/p>\n

The clerics held a meeting on Monday with Mr Hamad, asking him to play a vital role in preventing his party\u2019s members and supporters from engaging in acts of disobedience, including holding demonstrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe asked Mr Seif to show maximum tolerance at this period when a solution to the political crisis that emerged after the nullification of the elections is being sought. Both parties should place the interest of the nation above all other things,\u201d reads a joint communiqu\u00e9 issued by the Secretary of the Mufti\u2019s Office, Sheikh Fadhili Soraga.<\/p>\n

According to the statement, the clerics, who attended the meeting with Mr Hamad, who is also Zanzibar First Vice-President, were Mufti of Zanzibar, Sheikh Saleh Omar Kabi, Archbishop Augustine Shao of the Zanzibar Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop Michael Hafidh of the Zanzibar Diocese of the Anglican Church of Tanzania, Sheikh Norman Jongo from the Interfaith Committee and several priests from other Christian denominations.<\/p>\n

Sheikh Soraga told reporters that Mr Seif had been positive in his response as the religious leaders also plan to meet Zanzibar\u2019s Second Vice-President, Ambassador Seif Ali Iddi, in their effort to water down tension and promote dialogue.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mr Hamad has written to the union President Jakaya Kikwete asking for a meeting with the outgoing top leader to discuss political crisis in the Islands before he leaves office this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have welcomed Dr Kikwete\u2019s permission to meet the Chief of Defence Forces, General Davis Mwamunyange, to discuss the army\u2019s role in Zanzibar politics; we have also written to the president, seeking a meeting,\u201d the CUF Director of Communications, Mr Ismail Jussa Ladhu, said in a press statement.<\/p>\n

In a separate press conference, the CUF Youth wing (JUVICUF) has logged fresh calls to the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) to resume announcing of elections results for the October 25 polls, saying it was the best way to move on. \u201cWe have an unnecessary political stalemate. It is easy to get out of this situation if we really need to move on. Laws and constitution have been violated.<\/p>\n

But we can still go back to our laws,\u201d said Mr Mahmoud Mahinda, Executive Secretary of the JIVICUF at the press conference. He blamed their CCM counterparts, UVCCM, for \u201cdeliberate distortion of the motion under discussion.<\/p>\n

We are discussing the issue of nullification of the elections previously termed to be free and fair by respective authorities, including ZEC,\u201d he observed.<\/p>\n

Mr Mahinda said that the spirit shown in the Government of National Unity (GNU) can help us get out of the political stalemate \u201cso that we get back to work. We need serious commitment from all political leaders.<\/p>\n

We call for patience,\u201d he added. In another development, many residents here have started complaining about the rising cost of living caused by an abrupt increase in the price of food and other essentials following security measures instituted by the government to check post-poll trouble making.<\/p>\n

In most of the areas, life has returned to normal as police and other security agents continue patrolling the streets of this municipality that also serves as the seat of the Zanzibar Government.<\/p>\n

The Zanzibar Commissioner of Police, Mr Hamdan Omar Makame, had on Sunday warned that any troublemakers would not be tolerated. \u201cLife has been returning to normal.<\/p>\n

But the biggest challenge is the biting prices. For example, the price of Irish potatoes and onions increased from 1,000\/- to 2,500\/- a kilo and above,\u201d lamented Ms Fat-hiya Omar at Darajani Market. The most recent inflation figures showed the consumer price index had grown by a relatively high percentage in the past week after the October 25 elections.<\/p>\n

The polls have since been nullified by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC). An economist, Dr Mohamed Hafidh, told the \u2018Daily News\u2019 that people have started to be hit by the increase in the price of essential commodities.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome traders are afraid to import and sell goods, which has led to the shortage of commodities as well as creating a loophole for dishonest traders to hike prices,\u201d he said as the government responded by assuring the people of all-round security.<\/p>\n

The Minister of State in the Office of the Zanzibar Second-President, Mr Mohamed Aboud, said that people in Zanzibar, including traders, should continue with their normal activities and provide services to the people.<\/p>\n

Zanzibar still relies on food items, especially vegetables, from Tanzania mainland. Meanwhile, the security situation here has not been stable since Tuesday last week when the polls were invalidated.<\/p>\n

ZEC annulled polls in the Isles, citing \u201cmassive irregularities and violation of the electoral code of conduct,\u201d the situation which has created confrontation between CUF, which is the main Isles opposition party and the election management body.<\/p>\n

\"Mr<\/figure>\n

DAILY NEWS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Clerics have called for peace as political uncertainty looms over the Isles following a standoff involving the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC), CCM leaders and Civic United Front (CUF) presidential candidate Seif Sharif Hamad over the nullification of the general election here.} The clerics held a meeting on Monday with Mr Hamad, asking him to play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000069996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-20997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000069996,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20997.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20997.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20997.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20997.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20997.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20997.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000069996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20997"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=20997"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=20997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}