Election candidate collapses on last day of campaigning

The man widely expected to win tomorrow’s presidential elections in Tanzania collapsed while addressing thousands of supporters on the last day of campaigning today.

Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete, presidential candidate for the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi, or Revolutionary Party, fell on the stage and was immediately surrounded by security officers who took him to a hospital.

President Benjamin Mkapa – who is constitutionally barred from running for a third term in office – stepped in to address the crowd, saying that Kikwete was simply exhausted at the end of a gruelling campaign across east Africa’s largest nation.

Two hours later, Kikwete spoke briefly to journalists, saying that he was fine and that he had collapsed because he was exhausted by fasting during the last week of campaigning. He did not explain why he was fasting.

“I am happy that I am all right. (It was) physical exhaustion … I have been fasting,” Kikwete told reporters in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

Kikwete said doctors tested his blood pressure and blood sugar and said that the results were good. The interview was cut short by aides.

State-run radio and television abruptly ended live broadcasts of the rally after Kikwete collapsed.

Kikwete has been expected to be elected Tanzania’s fourth president since gaining independence from Britain in 1961.

Shortly after he was nominated to run for president, Kikwete publicly dismissed rumours that he was infected with HIV, the virus that causes Aids. He said his doctors have certified that he was in good health.

The ruling party was expected to lose seats in parliamentary elections to opposition parties that sought to capitalise on public anger over allegations of corruption that denied popular candidates nomination on the ruling party’s ticket.

The opposition has also mounted a spirited campaign, using helicopters and text messaging.

Voters are also unhappy with the ruling party’s failure to curb growing unemployment and inability to ensure that economic growth translates to better living conditions for the majority of Tanzania’s 38 million people.

Opposition parties currently hold 34 seats in the 295-seat National Assembly. Eighteen political parties were on the ballot for tomorrow’s elections.

The vote had been scheduled for October 30, but was postponed because of the death of a vice-presidential candidate from an opposition party.