The British government has been urged to review
aid worth £200 million (over 622 billion shillings) to Tanzania due to
the widely criticized Zanzibar election re-run.
Dr Liam Fox
A
former United Kingdom cabinet minister warned against “spraying money
around” simply to ensure that Britain kept the United Nations target of
spending 0.7 per cent of national income on overseas aid, according to
media reports from the UK.
The row focuses on ‘flawed’ elections in Zanzibar, leading the main opposition Civic United Front (CUF) party to boycott the latest poll.
Last week, the United States accused Tanzania’s government of a “pattern of actions” that undermined democracy and cancelled aid worth $472 million (1 trillion/-) under the Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC) programme.
This placed pressure on Britain to do the same.
But the UK Foreign Office told a British newspaper that there was no decision to reduce Britain’s support for Tanzania even though Zanzibar’s election had not reflected the “will of the people”.
Dr Liam Fox, the former Conservative defence secretary, urged the UK government to review Britain’s aid for Tanzania.
“Western taxpayers expect their money to be used in an ethical way,” he said. “When there are clear breaches of political rights or human rights they will expect a response in terms of the aid we contribute.
The fact that the US has reacted in such a strong way gives a very good signal. We should be reviewing our own contribution in the light of that.”
“There are lots of places in the world where we could be using our aid effectively to alleviate poverty,” said Fox. “But countries need to earn support from the British taxpayer rather than us spraying money around until we hit 0.7 per cent.”
Owen Paterson, the senior Conservative backbencher and former environment secretary, said that DFID should reduce its aid to Tanzania in line with the US decision.
“The Foreign Office says the election is not valid and we’re carrying on spending the money anyway. This cannot be right,” said Paterson.
“The Americans have acknowledged that this cannot be right and have acted – and we should act accordingly.”
Zanzibar’s presidential election on March 20 was boycotted by the opposition and the ruling party’s candidate, Ali Mohamed Shein, claimed victory with 91 per cent of the vote.
The CUF is furious because, for decades, Tanzania’s ruling CCM party has been accused of rigging elections on Zanzibar in order to sabotage their opponents, who favour greater autonomy for the island.
Last October, Zanzibar electoral authorities cancelled an election in the archipelago which the CUF presidential candidate, Seif Shariff Hamad, claimed he was poised to win. The opposition and the ruling party then held talks to re-run the contest in a fair way.
Britain remains Tanzania’s second-largest bilateral donor, having increased its aid to the country by a quarter since 2014.
DFID’s programme in Tanzania is the department’s fifth largest in Africa.
Meanwhile, Tanzania's Ministry of Finance and Planning denied reports that a group of western donors has cut aid to Tanzania.
"The government would like to inform the general public that it is not true that a group of 14 western development partners has announced withdrawal of their general budget support to Tanzania," the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
"Development partners still support the national budget through three modalities, namely general budget support, basket funds and direct to project funds."
The finance ministry confirmed that the African Development Bank (AfDB), Denmark, European Union and World Bank were so far the only donors that have pledged to support the Tanzanian government's upcoming 2016/17 fiscal year budget.
It said other donors, including the US, the UK and Japan, would continue to support the 2016/17 budget through basket funds and project funds.
The row focuses on ‘flawed’ elections in Zanzibar, leading the main opposition Civic United Front (CUF) party to boycott the latest poll.
Last week, the United States accused Tanzania’s government of a “pattern of actions” that undermined democracy and cancelled aid worth $472 million (1 trillion/-) under the Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC) programme.
This placed pressure on Britain to do the same.
But the UK Foreign Office told a British newspaper that there was no decision to reduce Britain’s support for Tanzania even though Zanzibar’s election had not reflected the “will of the people”.
Dr Liam Fox, the former Conservative defence secretary, urged the UK government to review Britain’s aid for Tanzania.
“Western taxpayers expect their money to be used in an ethical way,” he said. “When there are clear breaches of political rights or human rights they will expect a response in terms of the aid we contribute.
The fact that the US has reacted in such a strong way gives a very good signal. We should be reviewing our own contribution in the light of that.”
“There are lots of places in the world where we could be using our aid effectively to alleviate poverty,” said Fox. “But countries need to earn support from the British taxpayer rather than us spraying money around until we hit 0.7 per cent.”
Owen Paterson, the senior Conservative backbencher and former environment secretary, said that DFID should reduce its aid to Tanzania in line with the US decision.
“The Foreign Office says the election is not valid and we’re carrying on spending the money anyway. This cannot be right,” said Paterson.
“The Americans have acknowledged that this cannot be right and have acted – and we should act accordingly.”
Zanzibar’s presidential election on March 20 was boycotted by the opposition and the ruling party’s candidate, Ali Mohamed Shein, claimed victory with 91 per cent of the vote.
The CUF is furious because, for decades, Tanzania’s ruling CCM party has been accused of rigging elections on Zanzibar in order to sabotage their opponents, who favour greater autonomy for the island.
Last October, Zanzibar electoral authorities cancelled an election in the archipelago which the CUF presidential candidate, Seif Shariff Hamad, claimed he was poised to win. The opposition and the ruling party then held talks to re-run the contest in a fair way.
Britain remains Tanzania’s second-largest bilateral donor, having increased its aid to the country by a quarter since 2014.
DFID’s programme in Tanzania is the department’s fifth largest in Africa.
Meanwhile, Tanzania's Ministry of Finance and Planning denied reports that a group of western donors has cut aid to Tanzania.
"The government would like to inform the general public that it is not true that a group of 14 western development partners has announced withdrawal of their general budget support to Tanzania," the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
"Development partners still support the national budget through three modalities, namely general budget support, basket funds and direct to project funds."
The finance ministry confirmed that the African Development Bank (AfDB), Denmark, European Union and World Bank were so far the only donors that have pledged to support the Tanzanian government's upcoming 2016/17 fiscal year budget.
It said other donors, including the US, the UK and Japan, would continue to support the 2016/17 budget through basket funds and project funds.
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