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Tanzania's Kikwete Wins Second Presidential Term


Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, casts his vote at a poling station at his home village of Msoga in the Coast Region about 120 km north of the capital Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 31 Oct 2010
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, casts his vote at a poling station at his home village of Msoga in the Coast Region about 120 km north of the capital Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 31 Oct 2010

The latest election results in Tanzania show President Jakaya Kikwete has extended his lead as he vies for another five-year term.

Tanzanian election officials say Mr. Kikwete's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party has won about 3.3 million votes, with results released from about two-thirds of the country's 239 constituencies.

Officials say opposition candidates Ibrahim Lipumba and Wilbord Slaa are running a distant second and third.

Final results are expected to be announced Friday.

Tanzania's election commission says incumbent President Jakaya Kikwete has been re-elected to another five-year term.

Results released Friday show Mr. Kikwete won 61 percent of the vote, while opposition candidates Wilbord Slaa and Ibrahim Lipumba finished a distant second and third.

Mr. Kikwete won the vote in at least two-thirds of Tanzania's 239 constituencies.

Mr. Slaa has called on Tanzania's election commission to stop releasing results from Sunday's presidential poll, saying police and intelligence services had rigged the vote. Commission chairman Lewis Makame quickly rejected that demand.

The ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party predicted this week it would likely lose some assembly seats but would ultimately win the presidential and parliamentary vote.

Officials issued results from Tanzania's 239 constituencies more slowly than expected. The European Union's election observer team said the delay was raising tensions among voters.

Officials in Tanzania's semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar have also released complete election results.

On Wednesday, CCM candidate Ali Mohammed Shein was sworn in as Zanzibar's new president. Shein won the island's presidency with 50.1 percent of the vote, while Seif Sharif Hamad of the Civic United Front tallied 49.1 percent.

Under a recent Zanzibar constitutional amendment, the parties will enter into a coalition government. That change was made with the goal of preventing election-related violence that broke out after the 2000 election.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

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