Thousands of citizens vote in Tanzania in local elections marked by opposition complaints

MADRID 27 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Thousands of citizens in Tanzania went to the polling stations this Wednesday to vote in local elections marked by complaints from the opposition, which has mobilized in recent weeks to protest the increase in political repression.

The elections, which are held every five years, will allow for the election of more than 80,000 local leaders in different parts of the country, although their importance lies in the fact that they will measure the spirits of the population ahead of the presidential elections, set for October 2025.

The Tanzania Democracy and Development Party (Chadema), considered the main opposition party in the country, boycotted the 2019 local elections after denouncing a campaign of violence and intimidation by the government Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).

The current general secretary of the opposition party, Freeman Mbowe, has denounced in a message published on the social network

Mbowe has detailed that Steven Chalamila, from the Tunduma electoral district, in the Songwe region, has been “brutally attacked and hacked to death.” Another candidate in the Gongolamboto district, Modestus Timbisimilwa, “has been shot dead by the Police while trying to prevent vote smuggling.”

Likewise, another candidate for the Manyoni constituency, in the Singida region, “has been fatally attacked in his residence by known police officers.” “We strongly condemn the murders and injuries inflicted on our candidates, leaders and members,” Mbowe indicated.

Since the country’s president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, took office after the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, in March 2021, humanitarian organizations declared their optimism regarding some measures of the new president to promote the development of Human Rights in the country, greatly weakened during the era of his predecessor, especially due to the violent repression against the opposition around the October 2020 general elections.

However, United Nations Human Rights experts have perceived an increase in political violence in Tanzania a few weeks before the start of an electoral cycle that will take citizens to the polls twice in the next twelve months.