Tanzania's electoral commission has said that results of presidential elections held last weekend will be released next week after a partial rerun of the poll in the semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar.
"We shall announce the union presidential results as soon as the Zanzibar results are ready on either Tuesday or Wednesday," said Lewis Makame, the chairman of Tanzania's National Electoral Commission (NEC) late on Tuesday.
The Zanzibari Electoral Commission (ZEC) plans to repeat polling for a batch of elections held amid chaos Sunday -- the most important being for the Zanzibari president and House of Representatives -- in 16 constituencies where voting was annulled because of massive delays.
But Zanzibar's main opposition party, the Civic United Front (CUF), has called for a boycott of the rerun, and demanded fresh elections.
Voting results had been expected to be announced on Thursday, with the swearing-in of the winner slated for Saturday.
Early results released by regional election coordinators in mainland Tanzania, where the bulk of an estimated 10 million registered voters live, showed incumbent President Benjamin Mkapa in a clear lead.
Mkapa is running against opposition candidates Augustine Mrema of the Tanzanian Labor Party, Ibrahim Lipumba of the Civic United Front (CUF) and John Cheyo of the United Democratic Party.
Mkapa's ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM - Revolutionary Party) has already won a majority of 142 seats in the 231-member parliament, electoral officials said -- DAR ES SALAAM (AFP)
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