Dodoma. CCM’s presidential candidate, Dr John Pombe Magufuli, said in his acceptance speech in Dodoma yesterday that he is set to be a servant of the people.
Dr Magufuli, 56, spoke of the overwhelming feeling he had to contend with since Saturday night when it dawned on him that he would be the chosen candidate to succeed President Jakaya Kikwete.
“I have nothing with which to pay you back; let me just thank you from the bottom of my heart for showing faith in me and entrusting this huge responsibility with me,” said Dr Magufuli, as he expressed his appreciation of CCM officials and members for their near unanimous endorsement of him as the incumbent party’s flag bearer in the elections.
“Today is a historic day for CCM and for me as an individual. On Saturday when I asked for your vote, I said I wanted you to send me out to work. I pledge now that I will be your servant. I will work with dedication and all my ability as blessed by God,” he told an ecstatic crowd, including President Kikwete who cheered him along.
The Works minister walloped two other aspirants in the last stage of what had been a tension-filled nomination process to clinch the prized ticket. He scooped 2,104 votes (87.1 per cent) against 253 votes (10.5 per cent) for Ambassador Amina Salum Ali and 59 votes (2.4 per cent) for Dr Asha-Rose Migiro.
The results announced to the filled-up auditorium at the mammoth 3,800 sitting capacity Conference Centre by the former Speaker of the National Assembly Ms Anne Makinda, was an emphatic endorsement for Mr Magufuli who built a profile of a forceful and result-oriented Cabinet minister for 20 years.
His victory appeared to a now galvanised CCM that went through a bruising contest pitting 38 aspirants, some of whom spared nothing in their pursuit of the prized ticket to State House.
The rivalry, especially among the powerful camps aligned to former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa and Foreign Affairs minister Bernard Membe, threatened to split the ruling party down the middle.
Mr Lowassa’s supporters in the decision making organs of the party threatened to revolt when his name didn’t feature in the Top Five list drawn by the Central Committee (CC) on Thursday.
For the first time in the history of the party, President Kikwete who doubles up as the party’s national chairman faced open defiance from the National Executive Committee (NEC) when members chanted in praise of the dropped Lowassa as the meeting to endorse the top three aspirants got underway.
Were it not for the intervention of retired presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Benjamin Mkapa and Amani Abeid Karume of Zanzibar, as well as other leaders forming the party’s Advisory Council, the crisis might have degenerated into an unmanageable crisis. In the end, unease calm returned when Mr Membe was also dropped from the final list that had Dr Magufi and—for the first time in the country’s presidential race history—names of two women aspirants.
As he rallied the support of the losing aspirants and that of every other CCM member yesterday, Dr Magufuli said he would need their support to win the General Election on October 25.
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