Party campaigns will close on Saturday evening.(SABC)

The mood is tense but still civil among Tanzania’s main rival parties, three days before the country goes to the most contested election.

The country is not known for violence and intimidation and not even the most contested election is about to change this.

Tanzania’s main opposition Chadema is confident of a win, but it is still crying foul over what it claims to be vote irregularities.

It believes that the voter’s roll has been manipulated to give the ruling party an unfair advantage in Sunday’s hotly contested elections.
Battle for Zanzibar

Tanzania’s ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi, CCM and the opposition coalition will face it out in their toughest battle yet for the semi-autonomous Zanzibar islands’ vote come Sunday.

The islands have previously witnessed bloody post election battles on allegations of vote rigging. The key campaign issue in the lead up to the polls has been the island’s autonomy.

Voters in Zanzibar will elect the national president as well as their own president and parliamentary and local representatives on election day set for Sunday.

Previous elections in Zanzibar were marred by violence and allegations of vote rigging both in 2000 and 2005. Some analysts warn there is a risk of violence in some parts of the country including Zanzibar.

The union between the islands and the mainland has been a major factor in campaigns. The opposition has long-sought autonomy and blamed the national government of marginalization.

Chadema’s acting secretary general, Salum Mwalim, is contesting in Zanzibar, he claims he has found anomalies in the voter’s roll.

“We have found some dead people still appear in the book. Some other people have been registered twice or three times in the book. What does that mean the person will be able to vote more than once,” says Mwalim.

The government denies the charge. It introduced biometric voter registration this year to increase transparency and reduce disputes. It says the system electronically records a person’s fingerprints and retina image,  preventing multiple registrations of a single voter.

Party campaigns will close on Saturday evening.