The presidential candidates for two main opposition parties, CHADEMA and ACT-Wazalendo, were both barred from contesting in the election. It’s an absolute sham and Hassan seems to be going down the same route of repression as her predecessor did. Unacceptable stuff
RaidBrimnes on
!ping AFRICA
The main Tanzanian opposition party Chadema, whose leader Tundu Lissu was abducted and indicted for treason earlier this year, is claiming that at least 700 people have been killed after several days of protests against President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who is poised to be elected to a second term in elections that were denounced as rigged, and from which main opposition leaders were banned.
Chadema officials said they arrived to this number by conducting visits in hospitals in Tanzania’s main cities where the protests have been taking place; including at least 350 in the country’s economic capital Dar es-Salaam. A Tanzanian security source confirmed the number to the AFP, under cover of anonymity.
Post-electoral violence are a recurring occurrence in Africa; several people have been killed in Cameroon and Ivory Coast this week after their respective presidents were “re-elected” unopposed for their eighth and fourth term – but if the numbers claimed by Chadema are confirmed, this would be the deadliest instance of post-electoral violence on the continent in fifteen years, when Ivory Coast descended into civil war in 2010 following the incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to acknowledge his defeat.
Tanzania has been ruled since independence in 1961 by the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), an African socialist party that has maintained an iron grip on the East African giant, first as a one-party state, then as a competitive authoritarian regime. CCM’s leaders Samia Suluhu Hassan ascended to the presidency in 2021 following President John Magufuli’s death and became the first woman to preside over Tanzania.
While she was at first hailed as a reformer for implementing an efficient vaccine distribution program to counter the Covid pandemic, in stark contrast with her predecessor Covid-skeptical stance, and lifting restrictions on press freedom and political participation, she took a sharp authoritarian turn before the elections, banning the main opposition party, arresting several opponents, and ordering a deadly crackdown on protesters, who alleged widespread brutality, torture and sexual abuses by law enforcement in the weeks preceding the elections.
2 Comments
The presidential candidates for two main opposition parties, CHADEMA and ACT-Wazalendo, were both barred from contesting in the election. It’s an absolute sham and Hassan seems to be going down the same route of repression as her predecessor did. Unacceptable stuff
!ping AFRICA
The main Tanzanian opposition party Chadema, whose leader Tundu Lissu was abducted and indicted for treason earlier this year, is claiming that at least 700 people have been killed after several days of protests against President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who is poised to be elected to a second term in elections that were denounced as rigged, and from which main opposition leaders were banned.
Chadema officials said they arrived to this number by conducting visits in hospitals in Tanzania’s main cities where the protests have been taking place; including at least 350 in the country’s economic capital Dar es-Salaam. A Tanzanian security source confirmed the number to the AFP, under cover of anonymity.
Post-electoral violence are a recurring occurrence in Africa; several people have been killed in Cameroon and Ivory Coast this week after their respective presidents were “re-elected” unopposed for their eighth and fourth term – but if the numbers claimed by Chadema are confirmed, this would be the deadliest instance of post-electoral violence on the continent in fifteen years, when Ivory Coast descended into civil war in 2010 following the incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to acknowledge his defeat.
Tanzania has been ruled since independence in 1961 by the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), an African socialist party that has maintained an iron grip on the East African giant, first as a one-party state, then as a competitive authoritarian regime. CCM’s leaders Samia Suluhu Hassan ascended to the presidency in 2021 following President John Magufuli’s death and became the first woman to preside over Tanzania.
While she was at first hailed as a reformer for implementing an efficient vaccine distribution program to counter the Covid pandemic, in stark contrast with her predecessor Covid-skeptical stance, and lifting restrictions on press freedom and political participation, she took a sharp authoritarian turn before the elections, banning the main opposition party, arresting several opponents, and ordering a deadly crackdown on protesters, who alleged widespread brutality, torture and sexual abuses by law enforcement in the weeks preceding the elections.