Dar es Salaam. The race for leadership within the opposition ACT-Wazalendo party concluded on Wednesday after 586 party delegates, gathered at the Mlimani City Conference Centre for a two-day convention participated in an intra-party election to produce a line-up of leaders who’ll steer the party to its desired future.

During the elections, Dorothy Semu, a former civil servant turned politician, beat Mbarala Maharagande to become the Party Leader by garnering 354, equivalent to 65.7 per cent of all votes cast, against her opponent’s 184 or 34.3 per cent of the votes.

Delegates also elected Othman Masoud Othman, Zanzibar’s First Vice President, as the party’s new national chairperson, succeeding veteran politician Juma Duni Haji who withdrew from the race late in the campaign period, saying he seeks to maintain “party unity” during the process.

Othman, who garnered 96.6 YES votes of all 536 votes cast, will be assisted by Ismail Jussa, who becomes the new party deputy national chairperson for Zanzibar and Isihaka Mchinjita, ACT-Wazalendo’s deputy national chairperson for Tanzania Mainland.

With the party’s secretary-general, who will be nominated during Thursday’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, as well as other zonal party leaders elected during the convention, the new line-up of ACT-Wazalendo’s top leadership carries a heavy burden of sailing the party through many challenges, the biggest of all being upcoming civic and general elections.

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Tanzanians will go to the polls later this year to elect their street or village chairpersons. In 2025, they will vote for presidents of Tanzania and Zanzibar, lawmakers in the National Assembly and the Zanzibar House of Representatives and councillors. ACT-Wazalendo seeks to make the best of the elections, and newly elected leaders are expected to ensure that happens.

The leaders recognise this huge responsibility they’ve decided to shoulder, all mentioning the elections during their speeches to ask party delegates to elect them. Mr Othman, a lawyer who once served as Zanzibar’s Attorney General, told party delegates his top priority is to ensure ACT-Wazalendo “wins big” in the upcoming elections.

“Vote for me so that we can work together and ensure a landslide victory in the upcoming elections,” Mr Othman, a popular Zanzibari politician who sacrificed his government position over principles, told party delegates. “That’s why I ran for party chairmanship.”

Othman, who turned 61 on February 7, said he “abhors” injustices, vowing to do whatever will be in his capacity as party chairperson to oppose them in whatever form, including those familiar in elections.

“I believe,” Othman, who hails from Pemba, told party delegates, “that fighting injustices is the only way this country can achieve its developmental and democratic ambitions.”  

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On her part, Ms Semu, who worked in the government for 17 years before quitting public service and joining active politics, told party delegates that she seeks to create an “inclusive leadership” that will ensure “huge victory” in the upcoming elections.

“I want to be recognised as a party leader who’ll bring the party significant victory during the elections,” Ms Semu, who hails from Kilimanjaro, said in her campaign speech. “Inclusive leadership is key to achieving that goal, and that’s exactly what I plan to offer.”

Born in 1975, Ms Semu has served several posts within ACT-Wazalendo, including secretary-general and deputy national chairperson (Tanzania Mainland). In 2022, she was appointed Prime Minister of the party’s shadow cabinet, which was created to ensure accountability within the government.