Opposition arrested in Tanzania

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The party said on Twitter that several members of the Chadima party, Tanzania’s largest opposition party, had been arrested. They were said to have been arrested overnight until Wednesday in the coastal city of Mwanza next to Lake Victoria, before a planned meeting on constitutional reform demands.

According to the information, this is the head of the party Freeman Mboye and ten other members.

“His whereabouts are unknown after a police force raided his hotel and arrested him,” Shadia wrote about the party leader on Twitter.

“We strongly condemn the repression of Tanzanian rights. There are indications that the dictatorship under President John Magufuli will continue,” the party added.

New leader raise hopes

Incumbent President Magufuli won Tanzania’s presidential election in October last year with 84 percent of the vote, according to official election results disputed by the opposition. When he then died in March, party comrade Samiya Sohulu Hasan became the country’s first female president – a shift that raised hopes for the hard-line Magufuli dictatorship.

Shdima has now published a list of a total of 11 people who have been arrested. The meeting on constitutional reforms was blocked by local authorities in connection with the coronavirus restrictions, but Shadima nevertheless promised to go ahead with the plans.

“Ready to go”

“People from Mwanza and elsewhere, are taking to the streets and demanding the release of our leaders and respect for political rights!” Tondo Liso, Chadima’s presidential candidate in the fall elections, is now on Twitter.

Even after the fall elections, several opposition politicians, including Freeman Mboye and Tondo Liso, were arrested, but later released.

“If they want to arrest all Chadima members, let them expand the prisons first because we are all ready for arrest,” Mbwe said in a video posted on Twitter after the meeting was banned on Monday.