President Samia Suluhu Hassan says her interactions with voters indicate a promise to retain her in office and a promise to elect CCM candidates in the upcoming general elections.
Tanzania’s October 29 election is coming at a time when the government is facing increasing accusations of repression and a clampdown on opposition.
Amnesty International is the latest to join calls for an end to what it says is an “unacceptable campaign of repression against dissent” and the dropping of all charges against people being detained for political reasons.
“President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government has dashed hopes for reform. Instead, under her watch, authorities have continued and intensified repressive practices targeting opposition leaders, civil society, journalists, and dissenting voices, including through assaults, arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, with nobody held accountable,” Amnesty’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, said in a new report.
However, in a post on X, Samia Hassan said Tanzanians are satisfied in her government’s work.
“The people, in their unity, are satisfied with the work being done by the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) in bringing them development and stability for the future of our country.
“Their promise, like the promise of millions of voters everywhere I go, is to elect CCM candidates by October 29,” she wrote.
Arrest and detention of opposition figures like Tundu Lissu and the disqualification of opposition candidate Luhaga Mpina, has raised concerns about plans by the government to entrench power at all costs.
