What sort of MPs do people prefer? Do members of political parties value MPs who have been active in Parliament, who have made vocal contributions and asked critical questions? Do voters care about how much their MPs have held the executive to account on the floor of the Bunge?

One indicator for answering these questions is to analyze the relationship between active/dormant MPs and their performance in the preferential polls of CCM, the dominant political party in Tanzania. In the poll held on Sunday 1^st August, 2010, 203 elected CCM MPs were trying to become CCM flag bearers in the upcoming general election. Of these, 75 lost and 128 won. The final decision on which candidates will stand for the Party during the national elections is expected to be made by CCM's National Executive Committee (NEC) in Dodoma on August 14, 2010, but the poll gives an indication of the preferences of its ordinary members.

In this note we present six key facts regarding the relationship between the participation of MPs in Parliament and their performance in the CCM polls. Data for the participation in Parliament is drawn from the Uwazi brief entitled Do they work for us? Update on the 19^th session of the Bunge (brief and full dataset can be downloaded from www.uwazi.org), which is based on information provided in the Bunge website; data on poll results is drawn from newspaper reports.

In assessing which CCM Members of Parliament lost and won, we only report on elected MPs. The assessment does not include 71 MPs who are appointed as special seats legislators (58), by the Zanzibar House or Representatives (3), who are presidential appointees (9) and the Attorney General. It also excludes 4 MPs who 'retired', leaving 203 for consideration. Of these, 44 are elected high level Government officials (4 Regional Commissioners, 22 Ministers, 15 Deputy Ministers, the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and the Prime Minister) and 159 are 'ordinary' elected MPs.