Clampdown on democracy a cause for concern

TANZANIA will hold presidential elections in October. This will be the incumbent President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s first election contest since she succeeded the late John Magufuli who died in office in 2021.

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President Suluhu made history by becoming Tanzania’s first female president. She came into power as a reformist set on undoing her predecessor's repressive posture. She lifted the ban on political rallies, preached media freedom, and released the leader of the main opposition party Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema), Freeman Mbowe from detention.

Mbowe had languished in prison for almost 8 months under trumped-up charges of terrorism. She also met with the Chadema leader Tundu Lissu upon his return to Tanzania in 2023 after spending five years exiled in Belgium. Lissu had survived an assassination attempt in 2017 believed to have been sanctioned by Magufuli’s people.

Moreover, President Suluhu removed Magufuli’s hangmen from key posts such as the head of national security and the ideology and publicity secretary of CMM which were central to Magufuli’s repressive machinery.

However, Suluhu’s dalliance with reform was short-lived as she soon reverted to the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party’s default tactics of repression and intimidation.

Towards the local elections in November 2024, opposition leaders, including Mbowe and the current leader Tundu Lissu, were detained, and their officials and supporters were attacked and brutalised by the state security forces as they prepared to hold a rally.

About 83 people with links to the opposition were abducted allegedly by state agents in the lead-up to the elections. Thousands of opposition candidates were banned from contesting the elections. Having elbowed the opposition out of the contest, CCM unsurprisingly secured a landslide victory, winning a whopping 99% of the seats.