Local News

Hamad keen on presidential post

THE candidacy for the presidential post through the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) gaining momentum after the First Vice-President in the government of Zanzibar, Mr Seif Shariff Hamad, expressed interest in the race.

Addressing a meeting, Mr Hamad said he was hopeful h party would nominate him to vie for the top post in the Isles next year.

He mentioned one of h top priorities as raing clove prices from the current 3,000/- per kilo to 15,000/-.

The expression of interest by Mr Hamad comes shortly after another CUF member, Mr Hamad Rashid Mohamed, announced in Dodoma he will vie for the presidency although it was not immediately clarified he would do so through which party after he was reportedly fired from CUF.

“If my party nominates me for the post and I hope it will do so, I will have to carry out a number of tasks and one of them will be raing the prices of cloves to 15,000/- up from the current 3,000/- regardless of the trend in the world market,” said Mr Hamad who also the party’s Secretary General.

He did not reveal what miracles h government will apply to make sure the clove prices remain stable even if the situation in the world market destabilizing but maintained that strategies are underway.

Mr Hamad said as a result of the signs of the brighter future on the prices of the precious cash crop in Zanzibar and Pemba in particular, farmers have vowed to increase acreage and expand the farms ready for bumper harvests.

That will be different from the past, he said, when farmers almost gave up cultivating the crop venturing to other farming options.

The meeting which was prepared under the umbrella of UKAWA was also addressed by the leglator for Nyamagana, Mr Ezekiah Wenje, who asked the youths to prepare well for the forthcoming elections.

On the need for the youths to be ready for the anticipated changes in the country, Mr Hamad said that contrary to the situation in the Mainland, the youths in Zanzibar were ready for the change.

He insted that the youths, now accounting for nearly 75 per cent of the total population, are the strongest weapon towards the political and economic changes in the country.

On the divions that often frustrate unity in opposition parties, Mr Hamad said the UKAWA solidarity has taught the lesson that if united the opposition will finally make it.

“Sabotage in our parties will finally come to an end and our new era starts now when we plan to appoint one influential person to represent UKAWA in the Presidential race come 2015,” he stressed.