Unstoppable Samia eyes easy win amid opposition repression claims
Politics
By
Biketi Kikechi
| Oct 27, 2025
Tanzania’s President and ruling CCM party candidate Samia Suluhu Hassan during a rally to officially launch the party’s campaign in Dar es Salaam on August 28, 2025. [AFP]
Having removed any realistic opposition threat, Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan is almost certain to secure a second term in Wednesday’s General Election.
In a report titled “Unopposed, Unchecked, Unjust” and sub-headed “Wave of Terror Sweeps Tanzania Ahead of 2025 Vote”, Amnesty International has issued a damning assessment of the political and human rights climate in the country ahead of the polls.
The organisation claims Tanzania is witnessing a worsening human rights situation as authorities increasingly rely on repressive laws to suppress dissent, targeting journalists, civil society organisations, human rights defenders, and opposition figures.
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The government has dismissed the accusations, describing them as sweeping, unsubstantiated, and inconsistent with Tanzania’s governance and human rights framework.
Chief Government Spokesperson Gerson Msigwa expressed concern over the report, saying it had been released without giving the authorities a fair opportunity to respond.
Initially lauded for expanding political freedoms, President Samia, East Africa’s first woman head of state, has since drawn widespread criticism for increasing suppression and repression of opposition parties and political opponents.
Popularly known as Mama Samia, she is seeking a second term in office. This will, however, be her first time contesting an election, having assumed the presidency in 2021 following the death of former President John Magufuli.
The leader from the Island of Zanzibar has, since 2023, faced mounting criticism for her administration’s repression of opposition parties Chadema and Act-Wazalendo, both of which have been disqualified from contesting against the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party.
Chadema has been barred from participating in next week’s polls, while its leader, Tundu Lissu, has been detained since April on what critics describe as flimsy, trumped up charges.
It has also been reported that Luhaga Mpina, the candidate of the second-largest opposition party, Act-Wazalendo, has been disqualified, leaving only candidates from minor parties to face Samia.
In a dramatic twist to a week of legal setbacks, prosecutors in Lissu’s treason trial admitted on Friday that they were unprepared to proceed and successfully sought an adjournment after failing to produce any witnesses. Lissu objected, describing the request as a tactic to keep him imprisoned during the election period. The case was nonetheless postponed for more than a week, pushing proceedings beyond the October 29, presidential poll.
The adjournment came just a day after the prosecution’s forensic case collapsed, with the court rejecting both the video evidence and the expert report intended to authenticate it. “They have kicked the ball out of play. I am perhaps only being held because of the election,” Lissu declared, adding that the prosecution’s case had “crumbled and was finished.”
Meanwhile, John Heche, Chadema’s deputy chairperson, has been detained twice in one week amid a wider crackdown on dissenting voices. Heche was reportedly arrested while attempting to attend Lissu’s treason trial at the Kisutu Resident Magistrates’ Court. He was Againbriefly detained last week while attempting to cross into Kenya to attend the burial of former former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Tanzania’s Immigration Department stated that Heche had attempted to cross the border illegally, but Chadema dismissed this as false.
Meanwhile, election observers have begun arriving in the country for the much-anticipated polls.