What to know about a disputed election in Tanzania, where single-party rule is being challenged
KAMPALA Uganda AP Protests are spreading in Tanzania as electoral functionaries count the votes in a disputed presidential electoral contest that rights groups opposition figures and others say was clouded by a situation of fear in the months leading to ballot day The military has been deployed alongside the police to quell riots in major cities since Wednesday s ballot The sight of soldiers patrolling the streets sporadic gunfire and closed stores is rare in the usually peaceful country that several foreigners visit for its pristine coastal beaches and safari tourism That s partly because Tanzania s first female leader who has served as president since has sparked widespread anger for running virtually unopposed after her two main opponents were blocked or prevented from contesting President Samia Suluhu Hassan who seeks five more years as president ran against candidates from smaller parties Critics say that s a coronation not a contest Hassan is now the subject of a range of uncharitable cartoons posted on social media derided as a dictator and lampooned as being afraid of competition Tundu Lissu leader of the Chadema opposition group has been jailed for months charged with treason after he called for electoral reforms that he disclosed were a prerequisite for free and fair elections Another opposition figure Luhaga Mpina of the ACT-Wazalendo group was barred from standing Political maneuvering At stake for the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi party or CCM is its decades-long grip on power amid the rise of charismatic opposition figures who hope to lead the country toward political change The Armed Conflict Location Event Input or ACLED a nonprofit tracking violence and protest movements around the world describes CCM as the last of the hegemonic liberation parties trying to cling to power by blocking the opposition through administrative legal and extra-legal means The pattern includes enforced disappearances arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings according to Amnesty International In June a United Nations panel of human rights experts cited more than cases of enforced disappearance since saying they were alarmed by reports of a pattern of repression ahead of elections Internet access has been on and off since Wednesday as the nation awaits official results Tanzania s president has overseen an unprecedented crackdown on political opponents the International Dilemma Group explained in its the bulk up-to-date analysis The administration has curbed freedom of expression ranging from a ban on X and restrictions on the Tanzanian digital platform JamiiForums to silencing critical voices through intimidation or arrest Local police even appeared to be conducting so-called online patrols it revealed The political maneuvering by Tanzanian leadership is unprecedented even in a country where single-party rule has been the norm since the advent of multi-party politics in Authorities critics point out that previous leaders tolerated opposition while maintaining a firm grip on power whereas Hassan is accused of leading with an authoritarian style that defies youth-led democracy movements elsewhere in the region In Uganda the opposition leader Bobi Wine whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu is the leader of what began as the People Power movement which aims for a break with nearly four decades of the same leader President Yoweri Museveni took his lowest-ever share of the vote in the ballot marking the -year-old Wine as a formidable national leader In Kenya young people have been trying to hold President William Ruto accountable over official corruption and his alleged failure to keep campaign promises Last year and earlier this year they held demonstrations in the capital Nairobi that were so large and persistent that Ruto deployed the military to restore order In Mozambique a year ago violence erupted in the streets after the opposition figure Ven ncio Mondlane brought his supporters to the streets of the capital Maputo following a disputed poll In Madagascar earlier in October protests by mostly young people helped overthrow the executive of President Andry Rajoelina who fled the country after an elite group of the military joined crowds protesting water and electricity cuts Tanzania is an outlier But Tanzania is different an outlier in the region A version of the governing CCM party which maintains ties with the Communist Party of China has ruled Tanzania since independence from Britain in a remarkable streak that Hassan is trying to extend as opposition leaders try to break CCM s grip on the country CCM is fused with the state effectively in charge of the guard apparatus and structured in such a way that new leaders emerge every five or ten years Hassan herself was able to rise to the presidency as vice president without affair when her predecessor John Pombe Magufuli died suddenly after the start of his second term The orderly transition sustained Tanzania s reputation as an oasis of political stability and relative peace a major reason for CCM s considerable endorsement especially among rural voters Source
