Tanzania’s Top Opposition Party Barred From Upcoming Election
Chadema,Tanzania’s main opposition party, has been disqualified from running in this year’s general election, the country’s election chief said, after it refused to sign an electoral code of conduct. It comes just days after its leader was charged with treason.
Ramadhani Kailima, director of elections at the Independent National Elections Commission (INEC), said that Chadema had failed to sign the government’s electoral code of conduct, which was due Saturday.
It means the party is effectively disqualified from October’s parliamentary and presidential elections.
“Any party that hasn’t signed today will not be allowed to take part in the general election or any other elections for the next five years” he told reporters Saturday following the INEC.
“There will be no second chance,” he said.
Earlier on Saturday, Chadema said the party’s secretary-general John Mnyika would not attend the INEC meeting to sign the code of ethics, as part of its push for voting reforms.
The decision was “informed by the lack of a written response” to the party’s proposal and demands for “essential electoral reforms”, it said in a statement.
Chadema’s leader Tundu Lissu was arrested and charged with treason last week, following a rally in southern Tanzania where he called for electoral reforms, failing which his party would not participate in the polls.
Tanzanian opposition leader Lissu charged with treason
‘Silencing a critical voice’
The Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party has governed Tanzania since 1977 and the latest developments will likely strengthen its chances of staying in power.
CCM swept to victory in local elections last year.
Chadema said those elections had been manipulated, and that it would petition the high court to demand reforms ahead of the upcoming polls.
It has accused President Samia Suluhu Hassan of returning to the repressive tactics of her predecessor, John Magufuli.
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Lissu last year warned that Chadema would “block the elections through confrontation” unless the electoral system was reformed.
The opposition’s demands have been long ignored by the ruling party.
Rugemeleza Nshalla, one of the lawyers representing Chadema, said Lissu’s arrest was aimed at silencing a critical voice.
“What happened put a stop to the party’s campaign, which was trying to inform the public about a rigged electoral system designed to favor those in power,” he told RFI. “And now, the government has decided to silence them by banning gatherings and charging Tundu Lissu with treason.”
When Hassan came to power in 2021, following the death of Magufuli, she was initially praised for reversing some of his authoritarian tendencies.
But rights groups and Western governments have criticised what they see as renewed repression, with the arrests of Chadema politicians as well as abductions and murders of opposition figures.
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(with newswires)
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