Chadema battles internal strife as Tanzania heads to civic elections

Tanzania's main opposition party CHADEMA chairman Freeman Mbowe and opposition leader and former presidential candidate Tundu Lissu at the Buliaga grounds in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on January 25, 2023.

Photo credit: Reuters

Tanzania’s main opposition party, Chadema, will head into next week’s local government elections embroiled in internal wrangles, and facing a battlefield with the odds heavily stacked against the movement.

The poll for grassroots seats will be held on November 27, and all the signs suggest it will be another shoo-in for the ruling CCM party following a landslide victory in 2019.

This is due to widespread perceptions that voter and candidate numbers have already been skewed in CCM’s favour by the Ministry of Regional Administration and Local Governments (Tamisemi), which is overseeing the elections.

Chadema boycotted the last civic poll in 2019 at the eleventh hour, citing manipulation of the preparations.

The big news of the past week, however, was the reemergence of obvious disagreements between the party’s chairman, Freeman Mbowe, and his deputy, Tundu Lissu, over the party’s internal conduct so close to the ballot day.

Chadema, on November 14, issued a formal statement dissociating itself from Lissu’s latest remarks about corruption and “dirty money” disrupting the party’s management and its having been led astray by past CCM offers of inclusion in a coalition government.

Lissu had questioned why there was money during the party’s zonal election campaigns earlier this year but none for civic elections.

According to Tamisemi, CCM will field candidates for all available village, street, and hamlet chairmanship posts (a 100 per ent turnover) while Chadema and other opposition parties will contest less than 40 per cent of the seats at stake.

The ministry has also reinstated just over a third of opposition candidates who appealed against being initially disqualified from contesting.

The timing of the party’s statement denying these claims had many political observers seeing it as indicative of a party buckling under the pressure of overt state moves to derail it.

Although it did not mention Lissu directly, the statement further cemented speculations of a simmering power struggle between the party’s two top figures.

Mbowe played down suggestions of in-fighting, saying Chadema would settle such differences internally. Mbowe and Lissu are both regarded as viable candidates to challenge incumbent Samia Suluhu Hassan for the Presidency in 2025.

Built a reputation

While Mbowe has built a reputation as a moderate and cool-minded politician who tends to choose his words carefully, Lissu is vocal and militant.

This was particularly evident on July 26 when he appeared to jump the gun by publicly announcing his intention to run for the presidency next year before he had been approved by the party.

Each of them has represented Chadema in presidential races before, and lost to CCM opponents: Mbowe in 2010 and Lissu in 2020.

Chadema is set to conduct its in-house national leadership elections in December, soon after the conclusion of the civic poll, with Mbowe poised to run unopposed for the chairmanship seat that he has already held for the past 20 years.

However, the deputy chair position currently held by Lissu has drawn at least one other serious contestant in party central committee member Ezekiel Wenje.

Tamisemi announced on November 16 that 5,589 out of 16,309 opposition candidates who filed formal appeals against unjust disqualification from contesting the elections had been reinstated after a revision of their appeals.

According to Tamisemi Minister Mohamed Mchengerwa, the final list after the completion of the vetting exercise showed that CCM would field candidates for all 80,430 village, street, and hamlet chairmanship posts that are up for grabs, while opposition parties would present only 30,977 candidates (equivalent to 38.51 percent).

This means 61.49 per cent of the chairperson seats will be contested by only CCM candidates.

Under new election rules, voters will this year cast Yes or No votes for candidates who run unopposed, unlike the previous arrangement where they were elected unanimously.

Apart from CCM and Chadema, at least six other parties are confirmed to be contesting the polls, which also involve electing committee membership seats at all three levels.

These are ACT-Wazalendo, Civic United Front, NCCR Mageuzi, Democratic Party, Sauti ya Umma, and Ada-Tadea.