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Tanzania’s main opposition party has said at least two of its officials have been arrested on their way to a rally to support the leading government opponent Tundu Lissu, who is due in court to face a treason charge.
Authorities in the east African country have increasingly cracked down on the opposition Chadema party in the run-up to presidential and parliamentary polls in October.
Lissu could face the death penalty over the treason charge. His party has been disqualified from the elections after it refused to sign an electoral code of conduct.
Chadema has accused the president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, of returning to the repressive tactics of her predecessor, John Magufuli.
The Chadema spokesperson, Brenda Rupia, said the party’s deputy chair, John Heche, and secretary general, John Mnyika, were among those detained by police en route to the court in the business capital of Dar es Salaam.
Lissu, 57, was due at Kisutu magistrates court on Thursday, amid growing outrage in the country over his detention. Heche had previously called for demonstrations, and Amnesty International demanded Lissu’s immediate and unconditional release.
Lissu has not been seen since a brief court appearance on 10 April, when he was charged with treason, which has no option of bail, and publication of false information. At the time, a defiant Lissu told supporters: “The treason case is a path to liberation.”
He has been arrested several times in the past but this is the first time Lissu has faced such a serious charge. The politician has led a forceful charge against the government, vowing his party would not participate in polls without significant changes to the electoral system.
Chadema’s refusal to sign an electoral code of conduct prompted its disqualification – but the party has said the rules were designed to “ensure that the ruling party remains in power” and that the ban was unconstitutional.
The president’s party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, won an overwhelming victory in local elections last year but Chadema says the vote was not free or fair since many of its candidates were disqualified.
Chadema has demanded a voting overhaul, including a more independent Electoral Commission and clearer rules to ensure candidates are not removed from ballots.
Lissu warned last year that Chadema would “block the elections through confrontation” unless the system was improved. The opposition’s demands have been long ignored by the ruling party.
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A lawyer by training, Lissu entered parliament in 2010 and ran for president in 2020. He was shot 16 times in a 2017 attack that he says was ordered by his political opponents.
After losing the 2020 election to Magufuli, he fled the country but returned in 2023 on a wave of optimism as Hassan relaxed some of her predecessor’s restrictions on the opposition and the media.
Those hopes proved short-lived, with rights groups and western governments increasingly critical of renewed repression, including the arrests of Chadema politicians as well as abductions and murders of opposition figures.
In a statement after Lissu’s detention, Amnesty International condemned a “campaign of repression” by authorities, criticising the “heavy-handed tactics to silence critics”.
