Dar es Salaam. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) kicked off voter’s registration in the city on Monday, opening a one-week window for unregistered voters in Tanzania’s commercial capital as well as those whose voter’s IDs were lost or damaged to exercise their democratic right for the general elections slated for later this year.
This is the 13th and last round of voter’s registration exercise that the INEC launched in early January this year, which saw citizens from 29 regions across Tanzania Mainland turning up to register to vote in the upcoming general elections, the seventh multiparty election since the system was re-introduced in 1992.
Dar es Salaam residents will have until March 23, 2024, to participate in the exercise, where electoral authorities expect to register a total of 643,420 new voters across all 1,757 voter registration centres in the city, an addition of 96 new centres compared to 1,661 used in 2019/2020.
INEC expects to register a total of 643,420 new voters in Dar es Salaam, which is an 18.7 per cent increase to the 3,427,917 voters currently in the Permanent Voters’ Registry (PVR). After the registration of new voters, INEC expects the number of eligible voters in Dar es Salaam to reach 4,071,337.
INEC believes that this number might increase as it is possible that many Tanzanians who were eligible to register to vote in 2019/2020 did not do so for whatever reasons.
Addressing journalists as he was winding up his inspection of voter’s registration centres across the city, INEC chairperson Jacobs Mwambegele said the exercise has witnessed a smooth start, noting that operations at visited centres went as efficiently as expected.
“I saw many people turned out to register,” Mwambegele, Court of Appeal Judge, said at a press conference at the voter’s registration centre at Mnazi Mmoja in the city. “I urge Dar es Salaam residents to use the available time to register, instead of waiting for the last day to do that.”
Meanwhile, the leading opposition party CHADEMA in Dar es Salaam has urged its members and followers to boycott the exercise as part of its broader campaign to demand essential reforms that would deliver free and fair elections, happening under the slogan of No Reform, No Election.
On March 6, 2025, the party’s chairperson for Ubungo, a district within Dar es Salaam, Amos Maziku, told a press conference that the party, through a series of meetings it had organised with leaders and members, has resolved to boycott the exercise, which he described as a “waste of time.”
“When we talk about No Reform, No Election, we also mean the Permanent Voters’ Registry, which needs to be entirely rewritten,” Mr Maziku said, echoing sentiments that other party’s senior leaders have shared. “We think taking part in the exercise, while everything else remains the same, is a waste of time, and we refuse to do so.”
CHADEMA’s concerns are that the current legal and political environment doesn’t guarantee that the 2025 general elections will happen in a free and fair manner, calling for reforms that would improve people’s confidence that their vote matters and can influence electoral decisions.
While it has expressed concerns over the same environment, ACT Wazalendo, another major opposition party in Tanzania, has not declared boycotting the exercise, and it has been active, especially in Zanzibar where its a part in the ruling Government of National Unity (GNU), to encourage its members to turn out and register.
