Tanzania’s Opposition presidential candidate Edward Lowassa has rejected the ongoing vote tally, following Sunday’s election.<br /><br />Lowassa held a news conference where he alleged massive rigging in the tallying process to favour his rival John Magufuli of the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi which has been in power for decades.<br /><br />He says if the electoral commission goes ahead to announce Magufuli the winner, he will not sign the results, opening up a new controversy, hours after the poll agency cancelled elections in the Island of Zanzibar.<br /><br />Lowassa says he does not intend to contest the results in court which he terms as biased, but will in due course tell his supporters what to do.<br /><br />Zanzibar’s electoral commission says the decision to annul the vote was arrived at after violations of the electoral law were cited.<br /><br />In a statement, the electoral chairman Salum Jecha, said the polls on the Indian Ocean archipelago were “nullified” and must be carried out again.
