Tanzania’s opposition leader Tundu Lissu of the center-right CHADEMA party has been charged with treason, a crime that carries the death penalty and forbids defendants from being released on bond, one day after being arrested at a campaign rally in Mbinga during which he called for sweeping electoral reforms.
Tundu Lissu, a lawyer and anti-corruption activist, has long been a fiery opposition figure to the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the pan-African socialist party that has ruled Tanzania since its formation as a country in 1964, first as a one-party state, then as the hegemonic power of a multi-party hybrid regime. Lissu, who has been arrested and exiled multiple times, also narrowly survived an assassination attempt in 2017, in which he was shot 16 times.
The Tanzanian opposition has warned in recent months of a growing authoritarianism by the incumbent President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who came into power in 2021 after her predecessor John Magufuli died from Covid-19 and is running for a second term in the October elections, notably against Tundu Lissu.
Samia Suluhu Hassan, the first woman to become President of Tanzania, initially inspired hopes of democratization after the tumultuous, populist rule of John Magufuli, when she freed hundreds of prisoners, relaxed censorship, and lifted bans on political rallies; however she took a more authoritarian turn in the leadup to the 2025 Tanzanian general elections.
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Tanzania’s opposition leader Tundu Lissu of the center-right CHADEMA party has been charged with treason, a crime that carries the death penalty and forbids defendants from being released on bond, one day after being arrested at a campaign rally in Mbinga during which he called for sweeping electoral reforms.
Tundu Lissu, a lawyer and anti-corruption activist, has long been a fiery opposition figure to the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the pan-African socialist party that has ruled Tanzania since its formation as a country in 1964, first as a one-party state, then as the hegemonic power of a multi-party hybrid regime. Lissu, who has been arrested and exiled multiple times, also narrowly survived an assassination attempt in 2017, in which he was shot 16 times.
The Tanzanian opposition has warned in recent months of a growing authoritarianism by the incumbent President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who came into power in 2021 after her predecessor John Magufuli died from Covid-19 and is running for a second term in the October elections, notably against Tundu Lissu.
Samia Suluhu Hassan, the first woman to become President of Tanzania, initially inspired hopes of democratization after the tumultuous, populist rule of John Magufuli, when she freed hundreds of prisoners, relaxed censorship, and lifted bans on political rallies; however she took a more authoritarian turn in the leadup to the 2025 Tanzanian general elections.