A US aid
agency has cancelled nearly $500 million of funding for Tanzania after disputed
elections in the Zanzibar archipelago of the east African country.
The US
government's Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) said the March 20 vote in
semi-autonomous Zanzibar violated Tanzania's commitment to democracy and free
and fair elections.
The agency's
board said Tanzania has "engaged in a pattern of actions inconsistent with
MCC's eligibility criteria", and it had voted to suspend its partnership
with the government.
A Tanzanian
government official said the cancelled US funding was marginal and would not
have a direct impact on the government's upcoming 2016/17 budget.
Tanzania won
a five-year package of grants in 2008 worth $698 million from MCC, an
independent US government foreign aid agency, but the award of a second round of
grants has now been shelved.
The first
round funded water, roads and power projects. The cancelled aid, worth $472.8
million, was largely intended for the energy sector.
The ruling
party candidate in Zanzibar was on March 21 declared the winner of a disputed
presidential election that was boycotted by the main opposition Civic United
Front party.
The election
was a re-run of previous polls held on October 25 that were annulled by
Zanzibar's electoral authority on grounds of fraud. The opposition contested
the decision to hold another vote, saying it had won the first one.
MCC said the
repeat of the Zanzibar vote was neither inclusive nor representative.
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