Dar es Salaam. Preparations for Tanzania’s October 2025 general election are underway, with the government, political parties, civil society groups, religious organisations, and other stakeholders engaged in electoral and civic activities to ensure the process meets democratic standards.
In her message commemorating the 61st anniversary of the Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar on April 26, 2025, President Samia Suluhu Hassan reaffirmed her administration’s commitment to upholding “law and order” throughout the electoral process to ensure “free and fair” elections. The Head of State also urged citizens to participate “actively”—both as voters and candidates.
Despite President Samia’s repeated assurances, many Tanzanian political actors and observers fear that the upcoming elections—for the presidency, Members of Parliament, councillors, as well as Zanzibar’s president and House of Representatives—may fall short of democratic standards, citing authorities’ apparent reluctance to implement crucial legal and regulatory reforms.
The President’s pledges of free and fair elections stand in stark contrast to the government’s crackdown on CHADEMA, Tanzania’s main opposition party. Its chairperson, Tundu Lissu, remains detained at Ukonga Prison on treason charges, while police routinely block the party from holding rallies. CHADEMA’s leaders and members face persistent harassment, arbitrary arrests, and in some cases, even torture.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has even suggested barring CHADEMA from participating in the elections, citing the party’s refusal to sign the 2025 Electoral Code of Conduct as grounds for disqualification. This comes after CHADEMA threatened to boycott the polls unless key reforms were implemented. The opposition party has rejected INEC’s legal interpretation, accusing the commission of misapplying the law.
READ MORE: CHADEMA’s Kariakoo Rally Turns Into Standoff with Police
Against this tense backdrop, Tanzania’s religious leaders have intensified their calls for electoral justice in recent weeks. During Easter observances and subsequent public engagements, clerics across denominations have pressed the government to honour its constitutional mandate to ensure equitable political participation. Their messages have particularly emphasised the critical need for comprehensive electoral reforms to deliver truly free and fair elections.
Choosing optimism?
Amid a prevailing national mood of pessimism—with most observers dismissing any possibility that the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) will cede ground for genuine political competition—opposition party ACT Wazalendo has charted a different course. Defying the stacked odds, the party is preparing to challenge CCM within the existing electoral framework.
While CCM has already nominated its candidates—President Samia for Tanzania and President Hussein Mwinyi for Zanzibar—ACT Wazalendo stands as the only opposition party to have unveiled its challengers: party leader Dorothy Semu for Tanzania’s presidency and chairperson Othman Masoud Othman for Zanzibar’s top seat.
ACT Wazalendo has become the first party to launch its nomination process, with multiple members securing forms to seek the party’s endorsement for various positions, including the presidency, parliamentary seats, councillor roles, and Zanzibar’s House of Representatives. CCM’s nomination process was originally scheduled to begin on May 1 but has been postponed to June 2, 2025.
Beyond the presidential race, ACT Wazalendo features several prominent figures seeking the party’s nomination for parliamentary seats. These include Deputy Chairperson (Tanzania Mainland) Isihaka Mchinjita, who is vying for the Lindi Urban constituency, and Secretary General Ado Shaibu, who is contesting in Tunduru.
After deliberation, ACT Wazalendo’s National Leadership Committee announced on April 16, 2025, that the party would contest elections in both mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, as well as at all levels of government. Announcing the resolution at a press conference in Zanzibar, Semu outlined the following justifications, among others:
“After thorough deliberation, our party concluded that CCM both desires and would benefit if principled opposition parties boycott the elections, enabling further assaults on democracy. ACT Wazalendo refuses to grant CCM that opportunity.
“Our analysis shows that in countries worldwide, election boycotts have intensified state-led attacks on democracy by silencing citizens’ voices. Examples include Kenya (2017), Egypt (2018), Ivory Coast (2020), Zanzibar (2015), and Venezuela (2018).
“ACT Wazalendo will use the 2025 General Elections as a battleground to prevent these attacks. We will leverage the elections to demand systemic reforms. To us, the 2025 elections are a field of struggle!”
Electoral participation
The 2025 elections will represent ACT Wazalendo’s third national electoral challenge since obtaining permanent party registration in May 2014. The party first contested in 2015 with the late Anna Mghwira being its presidential candidate, who secured 98,763 votes (0.65 per cent of the total). That election also saw the party win its first parliamentary seat, with Zitto Kabwe elected as MP for Kigoma Urban.
READ MORE: A Decade of ACT-Wazalendo: A Journey Through Triumphs And Tribulations
During the widely criticised 2020 elections, condemned as neither free nor fair, ACT Wazalendo’s presidential candidate, the late Bernard Membe, garnered 81,129 votes (0.55 per cent of the total). Despite the electoral challenges, the party managed to secure four parliamentary seats in these contentious polls.
In 2020, ACT Wazalendo contested Zanzibar’s elections for the first time, with its presidential candidate, the late veteran politician Seif Sharif Hamad, securing 96,103 votes (19.87 of the total) in what opposition parties declared a “sham” election – enough to make the party a junior partner in the Isles’ Government of National Unity (GNU).
But far from disappointing the party or preventing it from participating in the 2025 elections, this history instead gives ACT Wazalendo even more reason to engage in the electoral process. In her April 6 statement, Ms Semu declared: “ACT Wazalendo will intensify its struggle for electoral reforms until the final minute to ensure free, fair, and credible elections nationwide. We participate while fighting, and we fight while participating!”
Given the current political climate, marked by authorities intensifying their crackdown on opposition and dissent, some have interpreted ACT Wazalendo’s decision to participate in the elections as an act of “betrayal or self-interest.” This has forced the party into a defensive position, repeatedly having to explain and justify its stance.
Learning from mistakes?
Political scientist and analyst Aikande Kwayu refrained from categorising ACT Wazalendo’s decision as either right or wrong. However, in an interview with this publication, she suggested the party might be drawing from historical precedent – experiences demonstrating that electoral boycotts often result in more losses than gains for opposition groups.
READ MORE: ACT-Wazalendo’s New Leadership Singles Out Election As Top Priority
She may be alluding to the 2015 episode when the Civic United Front (CUF) boycotted a Zanzibar election rerun—a decision that ultimately yielded no tangible benefits for the party. Notably, many of ACT Wazalendo’s current leaders were CUF officials at that time, suggesting their reluctance to repeat what they may now view as a strategic miscalculation.
“Yet participation offers its own strategic value: campaigns become a vehicle for mobilisation, allowing you to reach both supporters and the public while creating opportunities to expose electoral flaws and violence, though this must be weighed against potential risks,” Dr Kwayu offered.
“More fundamentally, it forces the opposition to confront difficult questions—what follows a boycott? In our political reality, what approach actually works against CCM?”
Associated risks
That may be an open question, but ACT Wazalendo’s decision to participate in the elections carries risks, warns Muhidin Shangwe, a political science lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam. He argues that the party is testing a strategy that has “repeatedly failed”—one that involves “participating while fighting, and fighting while participating,” as the party leader has previously framed it.
If recent elections in which the party has participated are any indication, there is little reason to expect a different outcome in the October general elections. ACT Wazalendo finished a distant third in the 2024 local government elections, which it accused of being heavily marred by security force interference, ballot stuffing, violence, and other irregularities. In those elections, CCM secured an improbable 99 per cent “victory.”
ACT Wazalendo has also raised allegations of fraud in multiple by-elections between 2021 and 2024, including the March 2024 councillor elections across 24 mainland wards, which the party denounced as neither free nor fair. The party boycotted the Kwahani parliamentary by-election in Zanzibar, demanding reforms at the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC)—reforms that remain unrealised to this day.
Given this stark reality, Dr Shangwe argues that contesting elections does more harm than good for ACT Wazalendo. He warns that participation risks deepening the party’s “trust deficit” by reinforcing perceptions—whether accurate or not—that it functions not as a true opposition force, but rather as “CCM B.”
“It could face continued backlash for allegedly aiding CCM during a time of heightened resistance,” Shangwe analysed. “It risks being accused of legitimising anti-democratic processes and sanitising the violations that accompany them. I don’t see how that benefits the party in the long run—especially in its efforts to establish itself as a credible opposition force in its own right.”
