|
||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Opinion polls | ||||||||||||||||||||
Registered | 23,254,485 | |||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Tanzanian general election of 2015 was the 5th election to be held since the restoration of the multi-party system in 1992. Voters elected the president, members of Parliament, and local government councillors. By convention, the election was held on the last Sunday of October and was supervised by the National Electoral Commission (NEC). Political campaigns commenced on 22 August and ceased a day before the polling day.
The incumbent president, Jakaya Kikwete, was ineligible to be elected to a third term because of term limits.Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the country's dominant ruling party, selected Works Minister John Magufuli as its presidential nominee instead of the front-runner, former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa. After failing to secure the CCM's nomination, Lowassa defected to the opposition Chadema party despite it once labelling him as "one of the most corrupt figures in Tanzanian society". This year's election was seen as the most competitive and unpredictable in the nation's history.
The government had warned politicians to refrain from engaging in witchcraft, and a deputy minister told parliament that reports linking politicians with the killings of people with albinism could be true as it increases during the election period. A ban on witch doctors was imposed in January 2015, as some of them condone the killings due to superstitious beliefs that the victims' bodies "possess powers that bring luck and prosperity".