⁍ The ACT-Wazalendo party said Nassor Mazrui, its Zanzibar campaign manager, and Abdalla Ali Abdalla, the party candidate for the House of Representative elections, had been abducted.

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⁍ Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania are due to hold elections for president, lawmakers and local governments on Wednesday.

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⁍ Zanzibar has previously been rocked by post-election violence in 2001, resulting in the death of more than 35 people.

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– The campaign manager for an opposition party in Tanzania’s Zanzibar Islands says he was kidnapped by men who fired a shot in the air before forcing him into their car. Nassor Mazrui, who is also the deputy secretary general for the ACT-Wazalendo party, says the men later released him in a forest, Reuters reports. “Throughout the time my face was covered face with a cloth and they frightened me seriously,” Mazrui said. “Some people said I staged my abduction. Why should I do that? For what benefit?” The party’s parliamentary candidate, Abdalla Ali Abdalla, is still missing. Zanzibar has been rocked by post-election violence in 2001, resulting in the death of more than 35 people. Opposition parties have said in the lead up to the election that their candidates campaigns have been disrupted on several occasions, while dozens of parliamentary candidates were disqualified.