CCM Secretary-General Yusuf MakambaThe Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. The CCM government withholds development funds from areas where the ruling party gets fewer votes in elections, a new study says.Titled The Politics of Government Expenditures in Tanzania, the study by Ms Laura Weinstein of the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles, says the CCM government favours areas where the party gets the most votes.
But Finance and Economic Affairs minister Mustafa Mkulo, CCM Secretary-General Yusuf Makamba and the chairman of the opposition Civic United Front, Prof Ibrahim Lipumba, all dismissed the findings as “flawed”.
According to the study, whose findings were first presented at the Working Group in Africa Political Economy (WGAPE) last May at Pomona College in California, the “punishment” strategy is meant to increase the party’s vote share.
It says voters’ lack of a viable alternative and reliance on government resources to improve their wellbeing has created room for such manipulation.
“Overall, this study finds that CCM disproportionately targeted higher per capita expenditures and larger budget increases to the most supportive districts in order to continue winning elections formidably,” the report says.
But Mr Mkulo dismissed the report, saying the government would never employ such a “self-destructive” strategy, adding that preparing the budget was a thorough and inclusive exercise that left no room for such discrimination.
“This is a very serious observation. I haven’t seen the report but what I can say at the moment is that the Tanzanian government has never used such a spiteful policy on its people… we have seen so many of these studies, which are done from time to time for different motives,” the minister said by telephone yesterday.
He said budget estimates were initially discussed by the Cabinet before being forwarded to parliamentary committees, and finally tabled in Parliament for debate and approval.
Mr Mkulo added that the Budget also had to go through a taskforce comprising academicians, religious leaders, economists and other key stakeholders before it is sent to parliamentary committees, which drew members from all political parties.
“Through this process, there is no room for manipulation or allocation of government expenditures as punishment or political payback,” he said.
CCM dismissed the study as “pure hypocrisy”, saying the party had nothing to do with the preparation of the annual budgets for districts and their approval.
Mr Yusuf told The Citizen on Sunday that district budgets were prepared by the various district councils according to their needs, and were approved by Parliament.
“That (study) is hypocritical. I think whoever conducted the study has never been to school. Had they been to school, they would have been conversant with the process of allocating funds to districts…there is no room for manipulation as claimed,” he said.
He said it was absurd for anybody to think that such a discriminatory system of governance could be put in place in Tanzania without drawing MPs’ attention and queries.
“How can an MP, representing, say, Kigoma North, just sit back as he sees much more cash being poured into other areas?” Mr Makamba asked.
Prof Lipumba said the study did not reflect reality, and gave as an example districts in the southern regions of Lindi and Mtwara, which had been voting overwhelmingly for CCM, but whose budgetary allocations were lower than Kilimanjaro and Arusha, where the party did not enjoy as much support.
“In my view, the opposite is true… I have doubts about that particular study,” he said. But Ms Weinstein says statistical analysis and examination of the data shows that CCM targets expenditure toward those districts that vote overwhelmingly for the party and punishes those in which there is low support for the party.
She adds: “These findings suggest that CCM pursued a long-term allocation strategy with the goal of increasing future electoral margins by punishing even slight defection with a decrease in resources.” The study says CCM could be targeting expenditure towards districts in which the party has high electoral support as a signal that districts with low levels of support will receive commensurately fewer resources.
She says the long-term of the distributive strategy was to win elections with the highest possible margin.
The study also shows how the government reduced allocations to districts whose residents are perceived to be sympathetic to the opposition.
A table shows how districts in which CCM enjoyed solid support, but which was then lowered, even marginally, were punished with cuts in fund allocations.
For instance, Liwale, Kisarawe, Mafia and Rufiji districts, whose initial level of support in the 1995 and 2000 elections decreased, experienced a decline in allocations despite support for the ruling party remaining relatively high.
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