Lissu the former Chadema party leader who returned to Tanzania in January after several years of recovering in Belgium from an assassination attempt by former President John Magufuli's security services has been holding political rallies across the country (Dispatches 1/2/23 Tundu Lissu's return prompts first opposition rallies for seven years)...

On 13 August Willibrod Slaa a former MP for the opposition Chadema party who later served as Tanzania's ambassador to Sweden and Finland under former president John Magufuli became the latest high-profile figure to be arrested for criticising the deal...

The opposition Chadema party celebrated Tundu Lissu's return to Tanzania after five years in effective exile in Belgium with its first mass campaign rally since 2016 weeks after President Samia Suluhu Hassan lifted the ban on political gatherings imposed by her predecessor John Magufuli in 2016 (Dispatches 21/3/22 Exiles return and investors take a look a year after Magufuli's death)...

It has emerged that following Suluhu's Nairobi visit in May 2021 weeks after she replaced late President John Magufuli 23 restrictive regulations that had impeded trade between Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were resolved (Dispatches 7/5/22 President Hassan takes her charm offensive to Nairobi)...

The move by President Samia Suluhu Hassan to lift the ban on political rallies imposed by her predecessor John Magufuli in 2016 opens the prospect of wider reforms on electoral law and constitutional powers – but not before the next election...

July's internal CCM party elections lifted the lid on the continuing power struggle between President Hassan and her allies who were close to former President Kikwete versus the faction which backed Hassan's predecessor John Magufuli...