Oda van Cranenburgh, "Tanzania's 1995 Multi-Party Elections: The Emerging Party System," Party Politics, 2 (October 1996), 537-549.

First Paragraph:
In 1995 Tanzania held its first multi-party elections since the 1965 constitution had formalized a de facto one party system. After briefly sketching the background to these elections, this article assesses these elections as a step in the country's transition to democracy. The Tanzanian one-party state has been the subject of many studies. For the purpose of this article, it is significant to note some research findings on the character of Tanzanian elections under that system. The 1965 'Interim' Constitution formalizing the one-party system had introduced competition between two candidates for seats in the National Assembly within the single-party framework. While the elections for the presidency were plebiscitary (voters could only vote 'yes' or 'no' to a single candidate), elections for parliament were classified as 'semi-competitive'. The single party, the Tanzania African National Union (TANU), preselected candidates to adhere to the party's policies. Consequently, these elections did not involve choice about policies, but only about individuals.The elections were less a public event than a manifestation of elite behaviour; they offered voters the choice of a local patron (Hyden and Leys, 1972). In comparative studies of Kenya and Tanzania, Barkan (1979) emphasized their highly competitive nature in a context of cliente list politics. Elections created a clientelist linkage mechanism between local constituencies and the political center.

Figures and Tables:
Table 1: Size distribution of all constituencies.
Table 2: Registered political parties.
Table 3: Presidential election for the whole country.
Table 4: Tanzania Union parliament results,1995 election.

Last Paragraph:
In the immediate future, the institutional context, the nature of the new political parties and prevailing political culture in Tanzania imply that multi-party politics will amount to the introduction and consolidation of a dominant-party system. We will witness continued rule by CCM, limited opportunities to check government power and continued marginal opposition parties. The expansion of choice and the broadening of representation remains extremely limited. Only with considerable time may we witness a gradual development towards a system where parties either alternate in power or share power. The former would require the opposition parties to grow out of the factionalist phase and to formulate policy alternatives. The latter would require a fundamental change in political institutions and culture.Both scenarios, however, depend on the rootedness of parties in a civil society which is just barely re-emerging.