Tanzanian parliamentary election, 2015

Tanzanian parliamentary election, 2015

25 October 2015 (2015-10-25)
All 256 parliamentary constituency seats to the National Assembly
First party Second party Third party   Party CCM CHADEMA CUF Last election 265 49 35 Seats won 252 70 42
340px Composition of parliament
Prime Minister before election Mizengo Pinda CCM Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa CCM

The Tanzanian parliamentary election of 2015 was held concurrently with the general election on 25 October 2015. Voting took place in all the 265 constituencies in order to elect Members of Parliament (MPs) to seats in the National Assembly.

In the last election, the nation's dominant ruling party, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) attained 186 of the 239 constituencies, thus achieving an outright majority. Tanzania uses first-past-the-post voting method for its legislative elections. On 9 July 2015, outgoing President Jakaya Kikwete addressed Parliament for the last time before it being dissolved.

CCM maintained its majority in parliament, but key figures in the previous cabinet suffered defeats in their constituencies.

Background

The outgoing 10th Parliament was dominated by the CCM and led by Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda. The opposition bench was led by Freeman Mbowe and consisted of CHADEMA (49), Civic United Front (35), NCCR–Mageuzi (5), Tanzania Labour Party (1) and United Democratic Party (1).

Twenty-six new constituencies were created by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and the names of ten constituencies were altered. Four opposition parties with differing ideologies have agreed to form an alliance known as UKAWA and intend to nominate a single candidate in each constituency. The alliance consists of the conservative/centrist Chadema, the liberal Civic United Front (CUF), the social democratic NCCR–Mageuzi and the National League for Democracy (NLD).

More than 2,700 CCM members contested in the party's primaries in order to seek the party's nomination. On 13 August 2015, CCM announced its candidates following its primaries.

Defections

• On 5 July 2015, Said Arfi (Chadema, Mpanda Town) announced his decision to leave his Chadema party.
• In July 2015, Moses Machali (NCCR–M, Kasulu Town) defected to the new party Alliance for Change and Transparency.
• On 21 July 2015, James Lembeli (CCM, Kahama) defected to Chadema.

National Assembly

Party	Votes	%	Seats
			Elected	Women	Appointed	Total	+/–
Chama Cha Mapinduzi	8,021,427	55.04	188	64		252
Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo	4,627,923	31.75	34	36		70
Civic United Front	1,257,765	8.63	32	10		42
Alliance for Change and Transparency	323,112	2.22	1	0		1
NCCR–Mageuzi	218,209	1.50	1	0		1
Chama cha Ukombozi wa Umma	23,058	0.16	0	0	0	0	0
Democratic Party	14,471	0.10	0	0	0	0	0
United Democratic Party	13,757	0.09	0	0	0	0	–1
Tanzania Labour Party	13,098	0.09	0	0	0	0	–1
ADA–TADEA	12,979	0.09	0	0	0	0	0
Alliance for Democratic Change	12,420	0.09	0	0	0	0	0
Chama cha Haki na Ustawi	8,217	0.06	0	0	0	0	0
Alliance for Tanzania Farmers Party	7,498	0.05	0	0	0	0	0
United People's Democratic Party	3,772	0.03	0	0	0	0	0
Jahazi Asilia	3,344	0.02	0	0	0	0	0
Progressive Party of Tanzania – Maendeleo	3,037	0.02	0	0	0	0	0
Chama Cha Kijamii	2,310	0.02	0	0	0	0	0
National League for Democracy	2,082	0.01	0	0	0	0	0
Union for Multiparty Democracy	1,975	0.01	0	0	0	0	0
Sauti ya Umma	1,810	0.01	0	0	0	0	0
National Reconstruction Alliance	1,467	0.01	0	0	0	0	0
Demokrasia Makini	1,226	0.01	0	0	0	0	0
Invalid/blank votes		–	–	–	–	–	–
Total	14,574,957	100	256	110	10	367	+17
Registered voters/turnout			–	–	–	–	–
Source: NEC, IPU

Further reading

• Does clientelism help Tanzanian MPs establish long-term electoral support? (PDF) by Machiko Tsubura.

External links

• Official website