2015 Tanzanian parliamentary election


The Tanzanian parliamentary election of 2015 was held concurrently with the general election on 25 October 2015. Voting took place in all the 265 constituencies in order to elect Members of Parliament to seats in the National Assembly.
In the last election, the nation's dominant ruling party, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi attained 186 of the 239 constituencies, thus achieving an outright majority. Tanzania uses a parallel voting method for its legislative elections: most seats are elected by first-past-the-post voting, but the special seats reserved for women are elected by party-list proportional representation. On 9 July 2015, outgoing President Jakaya Kikwete addressed Parliament for the last time before it being dissolved.
CCM maintained its majority in parliament, but key figures in the previous cabinet suffered defeats in their constituencies.

Background

The outgoing 10th Parliament was dominated by the CCM and led by Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda. The opposition bench was led by Freeman Mbowe and consisted of CHADEMA, Civic United Front, NCCR–Mageuzi, Tanzania Labour Party and United Democratic Party.
Twenty-six new constituencies were created by the National Electoral Commission and the names of ten constituencies were altered. Four opposition parties with differing ideologies have agreed to form an alliance known as UKAWA and intend to nominate a single candidate in each constituency. The alliance consists of the conservative/centrist Chadema, the liberal Civic United Front, the social democratic NCCR–Mageuzi and the National League for Democracy.
More than 2,700 CCM members contested in the party's primaries in order to seek the party's nomination. On 13 August 2015, CCM announced its candidates following its primaries.

Defections