Tanzania's ruling party picks presidential candidate

Tanzania's ruling party yesterday anointed government minister John Magufuli as its candidate for presidential elections due to be held in October, party officials said.

Magufuli, 55 and currently the east African nation's minister of works, will be widely expected to succeed President Jakaya Kikwete, who will be stepping down after his second and final term.

"I am proud of our candidate, he is a very hardworking man and I am certain he will be the best president," Kikwete said after ballots were counted in Tanzania's administrative capital of Dodoma.

"He is a no nonsense man. We hope he will help the country to conquer poverty, fight graft and indiscipline."

Presidential, parliamentary and local polls are due to take place on October 25. The ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party has been in power since modern Tanzania was formed in 1964, and currently has two-thirds of seats in parliament.

The party said Magufuli scored 87 percent of the votes, beating off Justice Minister Asha-Rose Migiro, a former UN deputy secretary general and ex-foreign minister, and Amina Salum Ali, currently the African Union's ambassador to Washington.

Magufuli had not initially been seen as a frontrunner, but was among three shortlisted from a field of nearly 40 other candidates that included Vice-President Mohamed Bilal, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda, and former prime ministers Edward Lowassa and Frederick Sumaye.

"I am profoundly overwhelmed by the results," Magufuli said. "But I promise to give the CCM a resounding victory in October. I also promise to serve all Tanzanians to the best of my ability in line with the law of the land and spirit of good governance."

Magufuli also named Samia Suluhu Hassan, a state minister, as his running mate. She comes from semi-autonomous Zanzibar, in line with the country's constitution that stipulates if the president hails from the mainland, the vice-president must be from the semi-autonomous archipelago.