The numbers that will influence Tanzania Presidential elections outcome

In exactly five days, Tanzanians will go to the ballot to elect the fifth President to take over from Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete who retires from elective politics after serving the maximum two five-year terms.

Kikwete took over State House from Benjamin Mkapa who served as President between 1995 and 2005.

Mkapa was the country’s third President. Others who ruled are Tanzania’s founding father Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and retired President Ali Hassan Mwinyi.

But what are the numbers that may influence the outcome of the election?

The two leading contestants; Dr. John Pombe Magufuli of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and his closest rival Edward Ngoyai Lowassa of Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) are banking on regional popularities to clinch the presidency.

Tanzania’s capital Dar es Salaam has the highest number of registered voters hitting 2,775,295, which represents 12.6% of the registered voters in East Africa’s largest country.

Out of that voter population, there are 1,319,202 male voters while women voters are 1,456,093 representing 48 and 52% of the registered voters there respectively.

The high voter population makes it a field for fierce competition and this has seen the eight presidential contestants hold a series of rallies here.

Magufuli’s home region of Mwanza comes second with a total voter registration of 1,448,884 and is closely followed by Mbeya which has a total voter registration of 1,397,653.

The famous Morogoro comes fourth with 1,271,951 voters, making it an area of interest to the presidential aspirants. It is followed by Tambora which has 1,097,760 voters, Dodoma with 1,071,383 voters, Kagera with 1,051,681 voters and Tanga with 1,009,753 voters.

Tanga is followed by Lowassa’s home region of Arusha which has 1,009,292 registered voters and then by Mara with 892,741 voters.

Other areas that are of interest and their number of registered voters include; Geita (887,982), Kilimanjaro (800,349), Shinyanga (773,273), Simiyu (718,777) and Pwani (697,533).

Tanzania has a total voter population of 22.7 million and the voting process will for the first time employ the electronic system through the use of Voter Identification Kits.

Source: citizentv.co.ke