Samia Suluhu Hassan, the president, looked set to strengthen her grip on the country against the backdrop of rapidly intensifying repression and the exclusion of opponents from the presidential contest.
Social media videos show protesters throwing rocks at police and a petrol station burning. Internet service was disrupted across the country, the global monitor NetBlocks said. “Live network data show a nationwide disruption … corroborating reports of a digital blackout,” it posted on X.
Hassan, a former vice-president who took office after the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, in 2021, has left nothing to chance for her first presidential test.
Opponents from the two main opposition parties in the east African country have been disqualified and government critics have been abducted, killed or arrested.
Analysts say they expect voter apathy, possible unrest over the stifling of opposition voices and the further entrenchment of Hassan and the ruling CCM party.
“Tanzania will never be the same after this election,” said Deus Valentine, the chief executive of the Center for Strategic Litigation, a Tanzania-based non-profit organisation. “We are either entering a completely new paradigm or level of impunity, or we are entering a completely new level of civil defiance. Something is going to give.”
