Dar es Salaam. The presidential candidate for Zanzibar in the October 2025 General Election through the opposition party ACT Wazalendo, Othman Masoud Othman, has outlined some of the challenges that will be a priority for the government he will lead, if he receives that mandate from the citizens.

Speaking to editors from various media outlets today, Saturday, August 23, 2025, here in the city, Othman, who is also the national chairperson of the opposition party, stated that Zanzibar needs significant systemic reforms that will enable it to benefit from the potential it holds as an island nation.

“Among these issues, we believe that Zanzibar needs a better constitutional system, internally within Zanzibar and also in its relations within the Union of the United Republic of Tanzania,” said Othman, who doubles as the First Vice President of the ruling Government of National Unity (GNU) of Zanzibar.

He also argues that Zanzibar requires comprehensive reforms, primarily in good governance and broad-based empowerment, encompassing economic, educational, land, and public sector issues.

“We are very confident that we have the answers to all these issues, and we believe that once we implement these solutions, Zanzibar will benefit from the great potential it has,” said Mr Othman during his briefing with the editors.

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“Within five years, by 2030, under our leadership, then, first, Zanzibar will hold a truly genuine, fair, and free election in which every citizen will see the value of their vote.”

“But we believe that we will be able to conduct an election where no citizen will have to close their business because of the election,” he added. “By 2030, we will have managed to involve citizens in the economy, instead of waiting for outsiders to come invest and for the locals to only be employees. We believe that we can achieve that.” 

“I am running because I believe Zanzibar needs my leadership,” Othman emphasised. “We face profound challenges, but my experience from serving in various roles, combined with my professional expertise, has equipped me to effectively address them.”

Opportunities

Othman defended his party’s decision to participate in the election, even as various stakeholders agree that the current political and legal environment in Tanzania and Zanzibar does not facilitate an election that is free and fair.

Aside from the significant involvement of defence and security forces in various elections, which many stakeholders have complained favours the ruling party, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), Zanzibar also has the unique challenge of voting taking place over two days, something many associate with election theft.

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However, unlike other opposition parties like CHADEMA, which are boycotting the election, Othman argues that ACT Wazalendo’s participation offers a crucial opportunity for the opposition and for the broader movement demanding political and legal reforms.

“The primary opportunity is to demonstrate that the incumbent authorities cannot be trusted to enact democratic reforms on their own,” said Mr Othman. “Participating in the election is a crucial way to challenge their integrity and actively push for these essential changes.”

Othman further argued that participation is crucial because it pressures the incumbent government into taking actions that reinforce a guilty conscience. He stated that fostering such divisions within the ruling elite is a key tactic.

‘Special project’ allegations

Despite this rationale, ACT Wazalendo’s decision to participate in the 2025 General Election has drawn strong condemnation from critics, who interpret the move as an endorsement of an electoral process they consider fundamentally illegitimate and riddled with deficiencies. 

This move, and ACT Wazalendo’s decision to collaborate with CCM to form a Government of National Unity in Zanzibar, has led some people to label the party as ‘CCM B,’ a matter that Othman acknowledged at his meeting with editors on Saturday, saying they are devising strategies to address it.

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Although this criticism has persisted for some time, fueling intense rivalry between CHADEMA and ACT Wazalendo supporters online, it gained significant traction recently when former Tanzanian Ambassador to Cuba and CCM insider Humphrey Polepole labelled ACT Wazalendo a CCM “special project” that he helped design from within the party.

Polepole, who, since resigning as ambassador, has become a vocal critic of the process that led to Samia Suluhu Hassan’s nomination as CCM’s 2025 presidential candidate, alleging it violated party procedures, previously served as CCM’s Ideology and Publicity Secretary from 2016 to 2021.

But Othman assured the editors at his meeting with them on Saturday that they are not aware of the issue of ACT Wazalendo being a CCM’s “special project,” and that everything he and his colleagues do is guided by their nature as an opposition party whose goal is to hold state power and contribute to the struggle for multi-party democracy in the country.

“These claims that [ACT Wazalendo] was a project, perhaps that was behind the scenes, but we who joined this party in 2019 did not join because it was a CCM project, nor did we see that, and if we had seen that, we would not have gone to ACT Wazalendo,” Othman explained.

In March 2019, following a prolonged internal power struggle within the Civic United Front (CUF), the late Seif Sharif Hamad—then the party’s Secretary-General—led a significant exodus of its leaders and members, primarily from its Zanzibar wing, to defect to ACT Wazalendo. This move was executed under the popular slogan Shusha Tanga, Pandisha Tanga (Lower the Flag, Raise the Flag).

READ MORE: Humphrey Polepole: Political Tantrums and Unaccountability in Contemporary Tanzanian Politics

“We were wronged, we were wronged by Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), through schemes, with great force, with things that are shameful, a disgrace to the nation, that even the Registrar of Political Parties, who was supposed to be the supervisor, the guardian of the parties, he is the one who participated, to a large extent, in ensuring that CUF was stolen from the people who stood for [justice], and the Court, unfortunately, blessed it,” Othman said.

“Now, the people who left there and then fled to ACT Wazalendo, and then you say it’s a project of Chama cha Mapinduzi. Truly, this is a serious mismatch, and I don’t think that even in a normal mind does that thing make any sense. If it existed, I don’t know, in the past, but we did not see it,” he added.

“We did enough research before joining the ACT Wazalendo party; there are my colleagues who were members of the Committee, who participated in doing that research, and they satisfied themselves that this is a serious party worth joining,” Othman further revealed. “I can assure you that we did not find even a scent of that matter.”