from ALLOYCE KIMBUNGA in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
Tanzania Bureau
DAR-ES-SALAAM, (CAJ News) – THE alleged killing and injuries inflicted on candidates, leaders and members of the main opposition have marred prospects of credible local government elections in Tanzania.
With the just-ended poll a precursor to general elections next year, these spell doom for the East African country.
Opposition Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA or The Party for Democracy and Progress) decried the killing of three of its members, as part of a ploy by the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Party of the Revolution) to rig the election.
CHADEMA reported that during the election period, Steven Chalamila, from Tunduma Constituency, in the southwestern Songwe region was attacked and hacked to death by suspected police officers.
Modestus Timbisimilwa, a candidate for the Ulongoni A Street Committee in Gongolamboto Ward, Ukonga Constituency, in the commercial capital city Dar es Salaam, was allegedly shot and killed by police while attempting to prevent the smuggle-in of fraudulent votes at a polling station.
The party reported that George Juma Mohammed, from the Stand Hamlet, Mkwese Ward, Manyoni Constituency in the central Singida region, was attacked at his residence by known police officers and fatally shot.
Freeman Mbowe, party chairman, said additionally, CHADEMA had received numerous reports of injuries, arrests, and detentions of its leaders, candidates, and supporters across the country as they sought to intercept and prevent the introduction of fraudulent ballots intended to favor CCM candidates.
“We demand the immediate and unconditional release of those detained,” Mbowe, recently released from prison on bail, said.
“Our party continues to gather information and will issue an official statement once the process is complete,” he added.
The opposition party alleges the ongoing actions bear the full endorsement and blessings of President Samia Suluhu Hassan and her government.
“The nation is effectively on ‘autopilot,’ where individuals act with impunity in their respective areas,” Mbowe said.
If the allegations are proven, they would add a new twist to the Tanzania presidency under Hassan, the first female president of the country.
Hassan came into power in 2021 after the death of Joseph Magufuli, who was denounced as a dictator.
She pledged reforms and liberties and reversed a number of laws that critics of her predecessor saw as autocratic.
Critics however accuse Hassan of returning to a hardliner stance of the Magufuli era in order to consolidate her power.
Last Friday, Mbowe and other party members were arrested south of Tanzania after leaving a rally that police broke up using tear gas.
A number of CHADEMA candidates were disqualified from contesting the poll held on Wednesday.
The next polls, including the presidential one, are slated for October 2025 and will be a litmus test for the CCM, one of the longest-ruling political parties in Africa.
Founded in 1954 as Tanzania African National Union, it won the independent country’s first elections with a landslide (99,2 percent) in 1962 before it merged with the ruling party in Zanzibar, the Afro-Shirazi Party, to modern-day CCM.
Magufuli won over 84 percent of the vote in 2020 but polls were marred by allegations of arrests of opponents, rigging and social media crackdowns.
CCM this week said it was grateful to citizens for coming out in “large numbers” to vote in the local government elections.
“Indeed, local governments are the voices of the people,” the ruling party stated.
– CAJ News