Tanzania Decides: Voters Head to Polls as Opposition Parties Decry ‘Exclusion’

Tanzania, 29 October 2025 – Tanzanians went to the polls on Wednesday in a General Election that President Samia Suluhu Hassan is expected to extend her grip on power after candidates from the two leading opposition parties were barred from contesting.

They are also electing local leaders, Members of Parliament (MPs) in the 400-seat parliament and a president and lawmakers in the semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago.

In Arusha, voters rose early enough to queue at polling stations to elect their preferred leaders. Matatus or daladala, a common means of transport in Tanzania, were few as it is a holiday.

In Morogoro, Clouds FM reported that wananchi were peacefully going about their activities, as qualified voters were seen lining up to decide the next lot of leaders.

Voters in Dar es Salaam also exercised their democratic right, with some seen displaying the ink mark on the little finger and urging others to go to the polling stations to elect their leaders.  

President Hassan’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which emerged in 1977 from independence party - Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and the then ruling party in Zanzibar, the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) - and has been in power since then. Tanzania gained independence in 1961.

Main opposition party, Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) was in April disqualified by the electoral commission after it failed to sign an electoral code of conduct.

CHADEMA leaders had championed for reforms in the manner in which elections are conducted in the country to give a level playing ground for all contestants and supporters.

Its clarion call of “no reforms, no elections” was met with unprecedent decisions with its leader Tundu Lissu, who survived an assassination attempt during the late John Pombe Magufuli era, being arrested and is currently on trial for treason.

Lissu recently told his supporters that he was confident the case would collapse.

“Currently what is delaying my freedom is the 29 October 2025 elections. There is no case here as the prosecution failed to prove the treason charges,” Lissu claimed.

The commission also disqualified Luhaga Mpina, who was the flag bearer of the second largest opposition party, ACT-Wazalendo, after an objection from the Attorney General, leaving only candidates from minor parties taking on Hassan.

Mpina told Deutsche Welle that, “I sympathise with the AG, whom I am sure is being used by the powers that be.”

“When we conducted the nomination exercise, our party invited the AG, who praised the way ACT-Wazalendo carried out the exercise. I was flabbergasted when I was eventually disqualified by the electoral commission,” Mpina said.

He claimed that despite having lodged a court appeal as matter of urgency, his plea was “ignored” as the electoral commission’s decision was prioritized over constitutional requirement.

Hassan, whose posters dominate towns and villages, has been traversing the country of around 68 million people.

She concluded her campaigns in Mwanza, after which she thanked supporters in that region, Tanzanians in general and the Almighty God.

She has boasted about expanding road and railway networks and increasing power generation capacity. In her next term, the incumbent has promised to prioritise hiring more teachers.

Hassan rose to power in 2021 following Magufuli’s death after an illness.