Mwanza. Opposition ACT-Wazalendo has expressed willingness to form a joint opposition with CHADEMA, Tanzania’s main opposition party, against the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) in the 2025 general elections, but CHADEMA says attention should first be paid to the November civic elections.
Senior ACT-Wazalendo officials have recently made public statements stating that the current political and security situations in the country, including the failure of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s reconciliation and reform agenda, force the opposition to stand together to save the country from another CCM administration after 2025.
ACT-Wazalendo, also a partner in the ruling Government of National Unity (GNU) in Zanzibar, also cites the deterioration of the safety and security of Tanzanians, particularly those in the opposition and critical of the government, which involves incidents of enforced disappearances, in its pitch for the joint opposition in 2025.
Ado Shaibu, the party’s secretary general, told The Chanzo during an exclusive interview on August 30, 2024, that ACT-Wazalendo was willing to join forces with CHADEMA in 2025 to take on CCM, adding that the two parties have already commenced conversation around the topic.
“ACT-Wazalendo believes that serious opposition parties in Tanzania must stand in solidarity for at least two reasons,” Mr Shaibu said during the interview. “First, we need to stay united in our mutual quest for improving the political situation in the country, and second, we need to remove CCM from power. Both tasks will be difficult if we work independently.”
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Mr Shaibu repeated this call on August 31, 2024, in a post published on X, formerly Twitter. In it, he said that the two parties have agreed to meet today, September 5, to discuss the country’s current situation, including the November civic elections, and decide on a joint way forward.
During an interview with Crown FM’s Salim Kikeke on September 4, former ACT-Wazalendo party leader Zitto Kabwe also emphasised the need for ACT-Wazalendo and CHADEMA to work together in the upcoming elections, including on the point of fielding a joint presidential candidate in the 2025 general elections.
“We cannot ignore the imperative need of working together as opposition parties [against CCM],” Mr Kabwe, a seasoned politician, said during the interview. “We’ll make a great strategic mistake if we fail to form a joint opposition.”
CHADEMA secretary-general John Mnyika could not directly say if the party would join forces with ACT-Wazalendo to take on CCM during the general elections, saying the matter should wait first as the parties are preparing for the civic elections due to occur on November 27, 2024.
“Civic elections are coming, and the parties will be competing against each other,” Mr Mnyika told The Chanzo in an interview. “Instead of [general elections in] 2025, we should focus on the elections just around the corner. After that, we can talk about 2025.”
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Should the parties form a joint opposition against CCM in 2025, it would be the most interesting political development of recent times as the parties have been sharply divided on issues of national concern, particularly on how needed political reforms could be achieved.
Perhaps there’s no other area in which the differences between the two parties became more apparent than the question of what should come first between the New Constitution and the Independent Electoral Commission. CHADEMA wanted the former to precede the latter, while ACT-Wazalendo called for an opposite process.
CHADEMA and ACT-Wazalendo also clashed on the appropriate approaches to engagements with the Samia Administration following the commencement of the now-dead reconciliation process. CHADEMA preferred boycotting the processes, while ACT-Wazalendo decided to participate in them.
ACT-Wazalendo, for example, participated in the reconciliation conference in Dodoma on April 5, 2022, and in the task force formed following the summit to consult stakeholders’ opinions on the best way to improve political pluralism in Tanzania. CHADEMA boycotted both processes.
Observers wait to hear the resolutions of Thursday’s joint meeting between CHADEMA and ACT-Wazalendo, see if the parties will overcome their differences, and announce unification of any kind ahead of civic elections in November and the general elections in 2025.
The last time opposition parties united against CCM during the elections, in 2015, the ruling party’s presidential candidate, the late John Magufuli, earned the lowest percentage of votes, 58.46 per cent, since the reintroduction of multiparty in Tanzania.
Matonyinga Makaro filed this story from Mwanza. He’s available at matonyingamakaro@gmail.com.
