A total of 78,875 people have registered as eligible voters in the Zanzibar north region for the coming general elections in Tanzania, according to reportsreaching Dar Es Salaam on Monday.

Zanzibar Electoral Commission Chairman Masauni Yusuf Masauni said that the number of people who have registered was more than that his commission had expected.

He said that the registration, part of a nationwide permanent voters registration for the general elections slated for October this year, had been carried out in peace in all of the 70 registration stations.

Earlier, the voters registration in the Pemba South region, part of the Zanzibar archipelago, had been marred by some violent incidents which had left a 16-year-old student and a government official dead.

Zanzibar, an Indian Ocean archipelago, joins Tanganyika on April 26, 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania.

Zanzibar, a major center for the Indian Ocean slave trade in the 19th century and now a popular tourist destination, elects itsown president and legislature.

Source: Xinhua