Dar es Salaam – Eight Members of Parliament from the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, who were appointed to women’s special seats, have filed an application at the Court of Appeal, asking the apex court to revise a High Court ruling that gave opposition party ACT Wazalendo the green light to proceed with its legal challenge.
The appeal, filed on January 29, 2026, and which The Chanzo has seen, argues that the initial court decision was flawed because it was made without hearing from the MPs whose positions are now at risk.
The appellants, including former deputy minister Juliana Shonza, contend that they were “necessary parties” to the original case and that the High Court’s decision to grant leave to ACT Wazalendo infringed upon their constitutional right to a fair hearing.
Although they were not named in the initial suit brought by ACT Wazalendo against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tanzanian law permits individuals whose interests are directly affected by a court ruling to appeal it.
The core of their argument is that the High Court illegally granted ACT Wazalendo permission to challenge the INEC decision, which was made in the applicants’ favour, without joining them to the case or giving them an opportunity to be heard.
Their application seeks to overturn the leave granted on December 30, 2025, by High Court Judge S.E. Kisanya.
READ MORE: High Court of Tanzania Grants Opposition Party Leave to Challenge INEC’s Special Seats Allocation
That ruling was seen as a crucial first step for ACT Wazalendo, allowing the party to file a substantive judicial review application on January 10, 2026. The opposition party is seeking to quash INEC’s allocation of 115 special seats, arguing it was illegally excluded despite meeting the constitutional five per cent vote threshold.
ACT Wazalendo claims it won 6.77 per cent of the nationwide parliamentary vote in the October 29, 2025, General Election, which should have entitled it to at least five seats.
The eight appellants are all beneficiaries of the contested allocation, which awarded 113 seats to CCM and two to a smaller opposition party, CHAUMMA. Besides Ms Shonza, the other MPs seeking to revise the ruling are Asha Ramadhani Baraka, Rebecca Nsemwa, Mwanahamisi Munkunda, Lucy Mwakyembe, Husna Sekiboko, Fatma Rembo, and Christina Mndeme.
This procedural challenge by the CCM MPs could significantly delay or complicate ACT Wazalendo’s main case. It shifts the legal battleground from the substantive question of whether INEC’s allocation was lawful to the procedural issue of who should have been party to the initial hearing.
The Court of Appeal will now have to decide whether the High Court erred by not including the appointed MPs in the preliminary stage of the case.
The legal saga unfolds against a backdrop of international criticism of Tanzania’s 2025 elections. Several actors have raised serious concerns about the fairness of the polls and the independence of the electoral commission.
READ MORE: ‘Flawed Process’: ACT Wazalendo Takes Electoral Commission to Court Over Special Seat Allocation
An AU observer mission, for instance, called for “urgent constitutional reforms,” specifically highlighting that the President’s power to appoint all INEC commissioners undermines the body’s independence. The EU Parliament went further, condemning the elections as “fraudulent” and calling for a review of its financial support to the government.
As the case now heads to the Court of Appeal on this procedural question, the central issues raised by ACT Wazalendo—concerning the arbitrary use of power by the electoral commission and the adherence to constitutional principles—are temporarily put on hold.
The outcome of this appeal will determine if and when the High Court can proceed to hear the merits of a case that remains a pivotal test for Tanzania’s democratic and judicial institutions.
