Power sharing in Zanzibar: democracy in transition to where?

Since the reinstatement of multiparty politics in Zanzibar, political conflict between the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the main opposition party Civic United Front (CUF) has characterized the electoral politics. There have been sporadic incidents of violence, hostilities and mutual distrust leading to increasing destabilization of the current political system. In November 2009 the leaders of the two opposing parties met and ubsequently announced that they would set aside their political differences and commit to work together to find a lasting solution through some sort of negotiated power-sharing. This has become a fashionable strategy to resolve political conflicts in Africa when the electoral process is seen to have failed. The paper explores the background to the current political situation in Zanzibar and the some of the issues behind this move to power-sharing. It suggests that a power-sharing approach in a situation where the democratic process, or at least the electoral process, has failed seems inconsistent with the spirit of multiparty democracy.