The failure of the Tanzanian government to show progress in talks with the CUF is brewing tension among the frustrated citizens of Zanzibar.

Below is an article written by Rose Athumani and published by The Citizen:

The Civic United Front (CUF) will carry out nationwide demonstrations to pile pressure on Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) to accept the Zanzibar peace accord.

CUF chairman Ibrahim Lipumba told hundreds of supporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday [6 April 2008] that the demonstrations would begin on Saturday [12 April 2008] in Zanzibar. “We will stage peaceful demonstrations countrywide to demand that the Mwafaka [agreement] reached with CCM be implemented immediately. I will personally lead the demonstrations,” said Prof Lipumba.

He said the right to demonstrate was enshrined in the Constitution. However, he also hinted that the party could still be willing to engage CCM in alternative means on the fate of the agreement but reiterated it was opposed to the idea of holding a referendum.

He suggested that President Jakaya Kikwete prevail on Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume whom he accused of being a stumbling block on reaching an amicable agreement to share power with CUF.

“Like he brought together Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga, he should use the same wisdom to bring together President Karume and Maalim Seif as the final step to securing the Mwafaka,” he said.

He cautioned that CUF would not fall prey to machinations by the ruling party into opening fresh negotiations on the agreement already adopted by his party. He said CCM officials were not showing any seriousness in arriving at a quick and peaceful resolution as they were openly contradicting their chairman Kikwete.

He revealed that CCM secretary-general Yusuf Makamba had written a letter to CUF on the failure by his party to endorse the Mwafaka but its content fell short of what President Kikwete had indicated last week [Week 14, 2008] when explaining why CCM opted for a referendum.

In his speech at the meeting attended by other opposition leaders, Prof Lipumba said President Kikwete should respect agreements reached by the two negotiation parties to demonstrate his goodwill and commitment to peace.

Other opposition chairmen present included Freeman Mbowe of Chadema and Augustine Mrema of Tanzania Labour Party.

NCCR-Mageuzi representatives, Chadema secretary-general Wilibrod Slaa and his youth director John Mnyika, and CUF deputy chairman Wilfred Lwakatare also attended the meeting.

Prof Lipumba said CCM was trying to be cunning over the Mwafaka issue, noting that the documents that were to be presented during the NEC meeting in Butiama were meant to be endorsed by the party's policy making organs and not proposals for them to discuss, as negotiations are conducted with full directives of the party central committee.

He said CUF gave ground several times on its own power sharing recommendations during the talks to accommodate CCM proposals, but was shocked the party had decided to renegade [sic] on its own compromise accord. He said the referendum idea was a latter day twist and an afterthought by President Karume and not arising from the CCM negotiating committee.

CCM vice-chairman (Mainland) Pius Msekwa admitted that the idea did not come from the negotiating committee, attributing it to "we, the members of NEC."

According to Prof Lipumba, President Karume was therefore the obstacle and managed to convince top officials including Makamba, Ali Ameir Mohamed and Kingunge Ngombale-Mwiru to back the referendum option. He however wondered if Mr Kikwete himself had not been privy to that idea.

Since the party chairman would be aware of the NEC agenda and the proposals being put for its adoption, he could not be unaware of the terms of the agreement or the referendum idea that was brought up later, the CUF leader affirmed. "So it is clear that even the President knew about this and now they want the Tanzanian public to believe it was the committee’s recommendation on Mwafaka,” he said.

He said Mr Kikwete had issued contradictory statements, telling members of the international community about smooth Mwafaka negotiations, yet his own party was rocking the boat from within.

“It is a pity that the President cannot respect his office by giving such commitments to the international community without having any wish to carry them out,” he said. The announcement to hold demonstrations came as tension is building up in Zanzibar over the failed agreement.

[…]

The latest Mwafaka standoff follows the CCM National Executive Committee’s refusal to endorse what had been billed as a power sharing deal with CUF.

CUF leader Seif Shariff Hamad had revealed in public that the two had reached an agreement to form a government of national unity in which his party would land the chief minister’s position and CCM retain the presidency.

The same spirit he said would be replicated in 2010 general elections with the winning party taking the presidency while the other sharing in the other top positions.

But at the Butiama meeting and subsequent explanation by Mr Kikwete, the ruling party referred back the agreement to the two parties’ negotiating teams for amendments. The ultimate results would have to come from a public referendum in Zanzibar, the ruling party had similarly declared.

This stance was immediately rejected by Mr Seif who since last week was away on an overseas trip that some faithful said was to report to the international community of the Mwafaka turnaround by the CCM leadership.