Tanzania’s Main Opposition Kicked Out of Upcoming Election

Tanzania’s election commission banned the country’s main opposition party, CHADEMA, from participating in the October election, days after its leader Tundu Lissu was arrested and charged with treason following a protest calling for electoral reforms, the Associated Press reported.

On Saturday, Ramadhani Kailima, director of elections at the Independent National Electoral Commission, announced the disqualification of CHADEMA, citing the party’s refusal to sign a mandatory electoral code of conduct.

He said the opposition party’s boycott of the signing ceremony constituted a legal violation that would exclude it from this year’s vote and any by-elections until 2030.

The decision comes days after authorities detained Lissu, who was charged with treason Thursday after holding a rally in southern Tanzania where he had demanded changes to the electoral system.

Authorities accused the opposition leader of seeking to incite rebellion and disrupt the election process. His trial has been adjourned until April 24, the BBC wrote.

Lissu has long criticized the country’s elections system for unfairly favoring the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has been in power since independence in 1961. His CHADEMA party has called for restructuring the electoral commission to remove presidential appointees.

His lawyer called the treason charges politically motivated by President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s administration.

Observers noted that CHADEMA’s exclusion paves the way for CCM to extend its decades-long rule in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary contests.

The arrest and election ban add to Hassan’s ongoing crackdown on the opposition and dissenters since she came to power in 2021 following the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli.

Hassan initially received praise for reversing some of Magufuli’s authoritarian policies. But human rights groups and opposition parties have accused the CCM government of the arrests and abductions of opposition members.

The government denies the allegations and has launched an investigation into the abductions.