Parties dig in for proper political reforms ahead of October elections in Tanzania

ACT Wazalendo chairman Othman Masoud Othman on Wednesday outlined the party's new hardline stance on reforms at a party convention in Dar es Salaam, where he echoed similar statements made last month by his Chadema counterpart Tundu Lissu.

"We are now officially ditching reconciliation politics in favour of more combative politics, and this is because there has been no change in the massive suppression of democracy being perpetrated by CCM (the ruling party) and the government it controls," said Othman.

Othman, the first Vice-President of Zanzibar would later find himself in diplomatic quagmire in Luanda after Angolan authorities blocked him and several other opposition leaders across the continent from attending an anniversary of Angola’s Unita party.

Back in Tanzania, his party alongside the ruling CCM and Chadema are Tanzania's biggest political organisations. ACT Wazalendo’s stronghold being Zanzibar.

Chadema is more enttenched in the mainland (Union) general election, which like in Zanzibar, will involve the presidency and parliamentary representation.

The two parties have been at the forefront of opposition complaints about the handling of last year's local government elections in mainland Tanzania, which resulted in CCM candidates winning more than 99 percent of the votes, amid claims of fraud that mirrored previous civic and general polls since 2019.

Lissu, who took over the Chadema leadership in January, officially unveiled the party's new 'No reform, No election' agenda on February 12, saying it would be based on mobilising public pressure for tangible reforms to prevent a repeat of the latest civic poll debacle.

Read: Fresh battle as Lissu lays out plan to block elections in Tanzania without law reforms

He outlined a strategy of targeting democracy stakeholders from religious leaders, civil society organisations, other opposition parties, ordinary citizens and the international community via public rallies and direct lobbying to secure their backing for a cancellation or suspension of the October election if the reforms were not made beforehand.

"We are not saying we will boycott the election; what we are saying is that we will be going all out to prevent it from taking place at all unless we see the kind of system reforms needed for a competitive election," Lissu explained.

"There is no point in allowing ourselves to be led to the slaughterhouse yet again by CCM, as was the case in the 2019 and 2024 municipal polls and the 2020 general election. We are prepared to lead a nationwide upsurge of civil disobedience, if that's what it will entail," he added.

Although it suffered as heavily as Chadema in last November's controversial civic poll, ACT Wazalendo has hitherto not been quite as vocal in criticising what happened then. Instead, it has restricted itself to trying to overturn some of the results through court petitions, but with little success.

On Wednesday however, Othman - who is currently Zanzibar's vice president in the semi-autonomous archipelago's coalition government arrangement and is set to run against incumbent Hussein Mwinyi of CCM in the October poll - let loose in an address to party leaders and supporters that was just as strongly-worded as Lissu's.

He said ACT Wazalendo had tried to work closely with other political parties and a task force on political reforms formed by President Samia Suluhu Hassan to prepare a framework for tangible reforms. However, these efforts had failed to bear fruitful results.

"All the recommendations adopted at these forums have been shelved and instead rampant acts of election violations have continued unabated.

“Now the time has come for us to say enough is enough, to change our approach to the problem. It is time for real struggle," he said.

While he fell short of categorically stating that ACT Wazalendo would take up a similar 'No reform, No election' agenda as Chadema , that appeared to be the gist of his message to the party’s faithful.

Read: Tundu Lissu’s tough task after wresting Chadema from Freeman Mbowe

According to Othman, Tanzania's entire electoral system has become compromised "to the extent that citizens can no longer choose their own leaders at any level, from the grassroots to the top echelons."

"This is a dangerous situation that does not conform with our own national constitution, and therefore it can't be condoned any longer," he said.

"We are officially told that Tanzania now has an 'independent- electoral commission in place, but the reality is very different. They should stop trying to deceive us."

The ACT Wazalendo leader was referring to amendments to the country's electoral laws that Tanzania's National Assembly passed in February 2024, under which the National Electoral Commission (NEC) was renamed Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

However, there is consensus among opposition parties that aside from the name change, almost all the key facets of the old laws pertaining to the actual conduct of elections were purposely left as they were.