Citizen Mobilization and State Repression in Tanzania’s 2025 Election
On October 29, 2025, incumbent candidate, Samia Suluhu Hassan, won Tanzania’s most recent presidential election. Her election, however, was not without significant controversy, as Hassan cruised to victory with a suspicious 97 percent of the vote and is now poised to lead the nation of 68 million people for another five-year term.
On election day, protests erupted throughout Tanzania, which led the government to impose a strict, nationwide curfew on its most populous city, Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s universities, originally scheduled to reopen on November 3, remained closed due to concerns over unrest and public safety. Protests rapidly expanded from Dar es Salaam to major urban centers, including Arusha Shinyanga and Morogoro because of the highly controversial electoral outcome. The anger that fueled these protests was a reaction to the fraudulent backdrop of the general election. Hassan’s two primary opposition parties in the election were barred entirely from appearing on the ballot, mirroring traditional patterns of democratic backsliding. Chama cha Demokrasia na Mapinduzi (CHADEMA) and Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT-Wazalendo) were both excluded from the election. In fact, in April of 2025, Tundu Lissu, the leader of CHADEMA, was charged with treason after the police arrested him at a rally during which he publicly called for electoral reforms before the presidential and parliamentary election cycle. Charges of treason are often used by authoritarian systems as a political tool to silence opposition. Thereafter officials declined to sign a code of ethics required for participation in the election. In response, Ramadhani Kalima, one of the directors of the Tanzanian National Electoral Commission, told members of the media, “Any party that did not come today will not be given the opportunity tomorrow. Therefore, if there is a party that has not submitted its declaration, it will not participate in this year’s 2025 elections or in any other by-election that may arise within the five-year period.” In this case, a procedural mechanism was weaponized with the true goal being to exclude an opposition party from the electoral process. The other central opposition party in Tanzania, ACT-Wazalendo, competed legally on the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar; however, it was barred from competing directly with Hassan’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party on the mainland. Hassan thus achieved an unprecedented victory at the polls, sending a clear message to her opponents.
For years, watchdog human rights groups have criticized Hassan for her slow advancement towards authoritarianism, starting with her repression of political opponents. A UN-led panel of human rights experts has cited more than 200 disappearances across Tanzania since 2019 and considered itself “alarmed by reports of a pattern of repression” in the leadup to the election. Several critics of the government and opponents of Hassan suffered arrest ahead of the election. The Hassan regime prevented foreign journalists from covering the election, further obscuring an already opaque electoral process. The presence of foreign press projects the news around an election to the world, thus with their presence restricted, they could not adequately report what was going on on the ground to the world. Hassan’s son and key advisor Abdul Halim Hafidh Ameir has faced extensive criticism for his alleged involvement in suppressing political opposition to his mother’s rule and accelerating the aggressive response to protests.
The protests in Tanzania grew rapidly: demonstrators poured onto the streets and security forces responded swiftly. Citizens primarily expressed their anger at the opposition’s exclusion from the election, denouncing the result as illegitimate. The demonstrations escalated rapidly as security forces responded with increasing levels of violence. Citizens reported being fired upon by law enforcement with tear gas and rubber bullets. CHADEMA reported to CNN that the death toll rose to 2,000 as police allegedly disposed of bodies at hidden locations. The opposition party’s director of communications, Brenda Rupia, told the publication, “As days keep going, we're establishing and finding out that more people have died in different regions.” The Tanzanian government denied Rupia’s claims, calling the count “hugely exaggerated.” The government imposed a nationwide internet shutdown, and police blocked Tanzanians from sharing graphically violent content after footage of dead bodies began to circulate on social media. Information blackouts impede citizen mobilization, obscure the reporting of casualties, and generally allow for state narrative control. The number that CHADEMA reported is rather high, which has sparked further controversy as it is being reported amidst an internet blackout.
The African Union has already announced that Tanzania’s election failed to meet basic democratic benchmarks and violated several AU electoral principles, a step that highlights the severity of this situation Its election monitoring mission stated that the election “did not comply with African Union principles, normative frameworks, and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections.”
In a region marred by electoral corruption and controversy, Tanzania has long maintained a record of stability. Leaders have historically respected term limits and the peaceful transition of power during elections, which Tanzanians have taken pride in. Hassan’s dominant and suspicious victory, and the vast unrest that followed, raises serious concerns about the future of Tanzania's political stability.