PREVIEW
Relatives of government critic Humphrey Polepole say the former ambassador has been abducted
Despite the absence of a major challenger to President Samia Suluhu Hassan, her government is taking no chances, banning coverage of an opposition leader’s trial and stepping up repression ahead of the 29 October poll.
The family of Humphrey Polepole, Tanzania’s former Ambassador to Cuba and now an outspoken government critic, reported his disappearance following a break in at his home in Dar es Salaam in the early hours of 6 October. Upon arrival, they found the door broken, electrical wires cut and a significant amount of blood.
Opposition leader Tundu Lissu’s treason trial started on 6 October behind closed doors following a ruling by the court on a request by the state prosecutor, who said it was necessary to conceal the identities of their witnesses.
Lissu has been denied bail since April and his legal team and supporters – including Kenyan former cabinet minister Martha Karua and prominent activist Boniface Mwangi – have been prevented from visiting him, at times brutally (Dispatches, 27/5/25, Hassan intensifies crackdown with torture of Kenyan and Ugandan activists).
Lissu was arrested shortly after being banned from standing against President Hassan. He and his Chadema party then launched a campaign urging Tanzanians to boycott the election without guarantees that it would be free and fair (Dispatches, 14/4/25, Banning opposition leader Tundu Lissu from elections confirms Samia’s authoritarian shift). That amounted to sedition and a threat to disrupt the elections, said the government.
Though Hassan will be one of 17 presidential hopefuls on the ballot paper, Luhaga Mpina, the candidate of the second largest opposition party ACT-Wazalendo, is not among them after the Attorney General upheld a ruling by the electoral commission that his party had not followed nomination procedures.
Salum Mwalimu, who defected from Chadema earlier this year and is running for the fringe Chama cha Ukombozi wa Umma (Chaumma) party, is the only remaining challenger of note. Yet despite the lack of electoral threat, attacks on opposition activists and government critics have also become more frequent.
Hassan has faced little pushback from foreign governments. While the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Lissu’s treatment and that of opposition activists, the European Union’s leadership has said little.
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