Crackdown on popular dissent in Tanzania as sham election goes ahead

As President Samia Suluhu Hassan orders hundreds of Tanzanian troops to the streets to secure what local observers say is a coronation, not an election, hundreds of citizens are being arbitrarily detained across the country.

More than 70 opposition leaders and pro-democracy activists have allegedly been forcibly disappeared. Popular politician Tundu Lissu, who has been charged with, but not yet found guilty of, treason, is reportedly being held in solitary confinement on death row, under 24-hour surveillance. His deputy, John Heche, was arrested and unlawfully detained in Dodoma last week. 

“We are being deleted by the government under Samia’s regime,” Heche’s brother said. 

Security forces in full military regalia patrolling the streets. Reports of torture, beatings, starvation and arbitrary detention of dozens of political opposition leaders and citizens alike. Truckloads of stuffed ballot boxes reportedly uncovered en route to voting sites and government employees threatened with firings if they don’t cast a ballot: Overwhelming evidence shows that Tanzania’s national election on 29 October is nothing more than Kabuki theatre, say local observers and opposition politicians, many of whom are in hiding.

“The saying here is, Samia is running against Suluhu – she is running against herself,” said John Kitoka, the spokesperson for the country’s largest opposition party, Chadema. 

“She is forcing people to vote for her to legitimise an illegal process, because what is going on is a coronation, not an election,” Kitoka said.  

Despite selling herself as a reformer when she came into power in 2021, replacing President John Magufuli, who died of Covid, Samia Suluhu Hassan and her party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), have taken a sharply authoritarian turn over the past two years. 

Daily Maverick has written about the brazen kidnapping and torture of foreign activists and observers by state security forces earlier this year. CCM has also carried out a sustained and heavy crackdown on members of opposition parties, particularly leaders of the Party for Democracy and Progress, known as Chadema. It was barred from contesting the election in April and the party’s assets and properties were seized, and its bank accounts frozen. Extrajudicial acts against its leaders and members have ramped up significantly in the months leading up to Thursday’s election. 

Party leader Tundu Lissu has been a prominent and popular opposition figure in Tanzania for decades, until an assassination attempt in 2019 sent him into self-imposed exile in Europe, where he had 26 operations. He had been followed home by gunmen wielding automatic weapons and shot 16 times in his vehicle. 

Lissu returned to Dodoma in 2023 to lead Chadema and contest the elections. In April this year, he was arrested during a peaceful rally and charged with treason, a crime which carries the death penalty. He has been imprisoned on death row since, despite the fact that the trial only formally began on 6 October.

Lissu has consistently pleaded not guilty in a case his lawyers say is clearly politically motivated. Lissu, himself a lawyer, was able to compel the three-judge bench last week to strike all the state’s official evidence from the roll for lack of admissibility. 

In a message via his lawyers, Lissu told supporters that he has spent the past few weeks in “total isolation”, his cell fitted with CCTV cameras that record him 24 hours. 

“This is not a matter of security,” wrote Lissu. “It is a deliberate act meant to humiliate my human dignity.”

Read more: Tensions rise in Zanzibar with polls expected to be fiercely contested

Unrest and extraordinary measures

Around the country, police and troops in armoured vehicles have been deployed in large numbers, with citizens reporting that they have been warned not to attend protests or demonstrations. International media outlets and observers have reportedly been barred from entering the country and internet posts and sites have been disrupted or blocked. 

“There are so many police and other security personnel on the streets, rounding up people and taking them away, that many of us have gone into hiding and are fearing for our lives,” said Kitoka. 

“When the police abduct you, they don’t take you to the station and register formal charges. They usually take you to unknown locations, and what they do there with you, God knows,” he said. 

Forced to flee his home, the brother of Chadema deputy-chairperson John Heche, Chacha Heche, spoke to Daily Maverick from an unknown location. 

“The government under the Samia [Suluhu] regime is trying to delete Chadema,” Heche said. 

“We are not allowed to hold even internal meetings or engage in any activities. As for me and other leaders, we are all in exile,” he said.  

“The number of abductions and extrajudicial killings are going up every day.” 

John Heche was arrested and taken to the capital city Dodoma last week, after attempting to attend a hearing in Lissu’s trial. 

“His alleged charges are bailable under our law, but the police will not release him,” said Kitoka, adding that he had received news that Heche is in poor health and being denied food in detention.

[Source: Daily Maverick]