Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on April 2, 2025.

TCD Reflects on the 2024 Local Government Elections and the Upcoming October General Election

The National Chairman of CHADEMA, Tundu Lissu, led the Summit of Senior Leaders of Member Parties of the Tanzania Center for Democracy (TCD). 

Among other agenda items, the meeting reflected on the Local Government Elections which was conducted in November 2024 and the upcoming General Election scheduled for October 2025.

The meeting was attended by leaders of all member parties, including ACT-Wazalendo, CCM, CHADEMA, CUF, and NCCR-Mageuzi. However, specific resolutions from the meeting were not disclosed in detail.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Tundu Lissu, whose party is campaigning for comprehensive electoral system reforms, stated that TCD serves as a dialogue platform for political parties that fundamentally disagree.

Currently, ACT-Wazalendo and CHADEMA are pushing for fundamental electoral reforms before the October 2025 General Election, each employing its own approach. Meanwhile, the ruling party, CCM, which was represented at the meeting by its Vice Chairman, Stephen Wasira, maintains that the necessary reforms have already been implemented through the 2023 electoral law amendments, which were passed last year.

“The changes made last year are merely cosmetic reforms,” said Tundu Lissu, emphasizing the need for more substantial electoral reforms.

DRC’s Strategic Partnership Proposal to the U.S. And the Quest for ‘Right’ Regional Leadership in East Africa

On February 21, 2025, Dr Aaron Poynton, envoy for Senator Pierre Kanda Kalambayi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, urging a Washington, D.C., summit between President Félix Tshisekedi and President Donald Trump to seal a strategic pact. 

At stake: U.S. access to the DRC’s US$24 trillion in untapped critical minerals – cobalt, lithium, and more – to fortify supply chains and blunt China’s dominance, alongside military aid to stabilise a nation scarred by conflict. 

Registered under FARA on February 27, the proposal sparked fiery debates in African WhatsApp forums, where it’s seen as proof of systemic breakdowns: the East African Community’s faltering grip, the African Union’s feeble global clout, and the tangle of navigating superpower rivalries. 

Two questions burn at the heart of these clashes: Are Africa’s leaders the “right” ones, and what does “right” mean when its edges blur with every vantage point? This analysis probes the letter’s stakes – mineral rights, military bases, port control – to weigh Tshisekedi’s gambit and its wider echoes, asking if leaders at national, regional, and continental levels match the slippery standard of “rightness” for Africa’s trials.

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Restore the Value of Our Vote – A Call for Electoral Reforms in Tanzania

In Lindi, as is the case across Tanzania, the struggle for democracy continues unabated. ACT Wazalendo is mobilising its leaders and members to defend our democratic rights. The recent party’s National Executive Committee meeting in Dar es Salaam issued a clarion call: we must protect democracy by restoring the sanctity of the vote. 

I was asked by the party leadership to travel to Lindi to explain to party rank and file about the resolutions of the NEC meeting. I dwelled on two critical resolutions from the NEC—Resolution No. 6 and Resolution No. 1—that demand urgent electoral reforms.

Resolution No. 6 mandated nationwide rallies and congregations to unite our members and leaders in this fight. Resolution No. 1 articulated our core demand: meaningful improvements to our electoral system. These are not abstract ideals but concrete steps to address a crisis that has eroded trust in our democracy over three consecutive elections—2019, 2020, and 2024.

In 2019, local government elections saw opposition candidates systematically disqualified, leaving no real choice for voters. In 2020, this pattern escalated: over 1,000 councillors now serve nationwide without being elected by the people, having faced no opposition due to disqualifications. 

Twenty-eight MPs, including Tanzania’s Prime Minister, sit in the National Assembly without a mandate from the electorate. Some opposition candidates were kidnapped or intimidated into withdrawing, while others saw returning officers lock their doors to block nomination forms.

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Lissu Faces First Major Test as CHADEMA Pushes ‘No Reforms, No Election’ Stance to Parliamentary Hopefuls

Tundu Lissu, the chairperson of the opposition party CHADEMA, is set to face his first leadership test on Thursday as he is expected to promote the party’s ‘No Reforms, No Election’ agenda to members who had planned to run for public office in the upcoming general elections.

On March 27, 2025, the centre-right political party announced that the meeting—scheduled to take place at CHADEMA’s headquarters in Dar es Salaam—will include the party’s leadership and members who intended to run for Parliament. These members are considered one of the “special groups” that need to be fully briefed on the ‘No Reforms, No Election’ campaign, the party said.

“This meeting is part of the party’s strategy to reach out to various special groups and stakeholders in elections, democracy, and the party’s future, with the aim of uniting them behind our ‘No Reforms, No Election’ campaign,” said the statement signed by CHADEMA’s spokesperson, Brenda Rupia.

CHADEMA launched its ‘No Reforms, No Election’ campaign on December 11, 2024, in response to the 2024 local government elections, which were marred by the disqualification of opposition candidates, violence, ballot stuffing, and ultimately resulted in the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) securing a 99 per cent victory.

Lissu, elected as the party’s new chairperson on January 22, 2025, succeeding Freeman Mbowe, inherited this agenda and made its implementation the party’s highest priority. He has been organizing rallies nationwide to promote the agenda among party members, emphasizing its crucial role in achieving key reforms for free and fair elections in Tanzania.

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