Voting Starts in Tight Tanzania General Elections

Voting has started in Tanzania's general elections in which the ruling party faces a strong challenge from a united opposition.In the presidential race, the ruling party's candidate, John Magufuli, is battling former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa, who defected to the opposition earlier this year after being rejected as the ruling party's candidate.

Voters Sunday are also choosing lawmakers in the country's parliament and local officials.

The electoral commission says it hopes to announce the winning candidate within three to four days.Damian Lubuva, the commission's head, said Saturday that a total of 23,254,485 voters are registered to vote across the East African country.The semi-autonomous island archipelago of Zanzibar is also voting for a president and local leaders.

Tanzania voters today had a chance to pick the countries 5th president since it gained its independence from the British colonial government in December 9th, 1961. Julius Nyerere1964-1985, Ali Hassan Mwinyi1985-1995, Benjamin Mkapa 1995-2005 Jakaya Kikwete 2005-2015…Julius Nyerere was the country's first President and just like him, the subsequent presidents have all been from the ruling party, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
Tanzanian's constitution was promulgated in 1992 which marked the end of Marxist dictatorship and led to a multi-party system.President Benjamin Mkapa was the first democratically elected President in 1995.Today saw more than 22 million Tanzanians cast their votes in both Presidential and parliamentary polls. Over 65,000 polls saw over 60 percent cast their votes with 10.8 million men and 11.9million women having their say in who leads the east African country whose economy mainly relies on agriculture.