Led by CCM Secretary General Yussuf Makamba and CUF Secretary General Seif Shariff Hamad the talks may not result in a government of national unity but they have survived attempts by angry party members on both sides to scupper them...
Trying to pacify his restive followers CUF Secretary General Seif Shariff Hamad has talked of a fresh election in Zanzibar with United Nations' participation; Zanzibar's CCM government rejects this too...
Seif Hamad's party is beginning to think of its members as 'freedom fighters' not just election contenders...
His rival Seif Shariff Hamad from the opposition Civic United Front was declared to have won 46...
Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers and Field Force Unit (FFU) troops have been tightly guarding the Zanzibar CUF headquarters and the house of its leader Seif Hamad...
'They doctored the results' declared Seif Hamad echoing a widely held view...
The main electoral battle will be fought between the current Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume of the CCM and Seif Shariff Hamad Secretary General of the CUF though there are six candidates in all...
For the Zanzibar presidency its strong candidate is the islands' former Chief Minister Seif Shariff Hamad CUF Secretary General...
The CUF's Zanzibar leader Seif Shariff Hamad who assumed he would be its candidate for the islands' presidency now faces a dissident group the 'G-7' which is said to back CUF Deputy Secretary General Juma Duni Haji; his main claim to fame is that he has served longer than most CUF leaders in gaol on apparently trumped-up charges...
If carried through it would transform politics marking a real break with the CCM's single-party tradition and establishing the CUF Secretary General Seif Shariff Hamad as a peace-maker...
However former Zanzibar Chief Minister Seif Hamad is winning influence for his party...
The pact had been negotiated over eight months between the Secretaries General of the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi and the Civic United Front (CUF) Philip Mang'ula and Seif Shariff Hamad...
Promptly at its national conference in Zanzibar on 14 November (more than 1 000 delegates were paid for in the new spirit of amity by the government) Seif Hamad said the CUF would withdraw from the agreement if these changes were made...
While Chairman Lipumba led the protest movement in Tanzania the Secretary General (who also leads the CUF in Zanzibar) Seif Shariff Hamad was drumming up support in the USA Canada and Europe...
The final official results gave Amani Abeid Karume (CCM) 67 per cent of the vote with 33 per cent for CUF leader Seif Shariff Hamad...