Tanzania Bars Another Opposition Presidential Nominees From Running In 2025 General Elections

Tanzania has barred the presidential nominee for the second largest opposition party Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT-Wazalendo), namely Luhaga Mpina, from running in the presidential election of the country's 2025 General Elections that are scheduled for October 29, 2025. That was reported by some media on August 27, 2025.

Tanzania bars another opposition presidential nominees from running in 2025 General Elections

Mr Luhaga Mpina who is said to be a fierce critic of the government there, and a defector to the opposition from the ruling party CCM, is the second presidential nominee for a major opposition party to be barred from the forthcoming presidential election. The first to be barred was Tundu Lissu, the presidential nominee for the largest opposition party CHADEMA.

Mr Tundu Lissu was barred from contesting in the forthcoming presidential election after been arrested and slapped with unbailable treason charges in April 2025. Since then he has been languishing in incarceration in Dar es Salaam, and his treason trial is now ongoing at the high court. Also, his party CHADEMA has been barred from the 2025 General Elections and all subsequent elections until 2030.

With the deadline for submission of nomination forms to the country's electoral body by presidential nominees said to have been August 27, 2025, hence expired, it is clear that the ruling party's presidential nominee, i.e., the incumbent president, who is said to have been cleared for the presidential race by the electoral body, will tackle only a handful of relatively weak presidential nominees for small opposition parties at the ballot place. That may imply a guaranteed easy win of the race for the incumbent.

The guaranteed win of the presidential race by the incumbent president will not, however, be surprising. According to some African political analysts writing in some media about a month or so ago, that has been foreseeable. They argue that in the past one or two years, the government of Tanzania has been clearing the way for such a victory for the incumbent through suppression of top opposition politicians, and ensuring that the most popular ones do not get a chance to contest in the 2025 General Elections. They continue that the incumbent president who is unelected having came power to replace former President Dr John Magufuli alias The Bulldozer who died unexpectedly in 2021, would have definitely tough time to defeat particularly the well known and popular Tundu Lissu in a free and fair election, if he was not taken out of the way through fabricated treason charges. The analysts continue that it is for this reason that the current government of Tanzania has refused to make necessary reforms to the electoral system, that would create level playing field for all political parties hence ensuring free and fair elections.

Assuming that the African political analysts' damning observations are correct, then one could argue that the forthcoming general elections and the presidential election in particular may not be free and fair. As such, the election results may not be credible and legitimate.

The foregoing doubt about the credibility and legitimacy of the results of the forthcoming general elections in Tanzania, become even more valid when one takes into account the possible consequences of the ban on CHADEMA and its leader from the elections, on voters turnout on the election day. Because of the ban, almost all eligible voters who support CHADEMA would likely abscond the elections hence would not vote. Even some eligible voters who support ACT-Wazalendo may not vote because of the exclusion of their presidential nominee from the presidential race. Because eligible voters belonging to the two largest political parties make a significant portion of the country's electorate, whoever will win the presidential election, and parliamentary elections of the general elections, will not have adequate mandate for governing and law making respectively. The winners are very likely to be voted for by supporters of the ruling party only because the other opposition parties allowed to participate in the elections are said to be small with insignificant numbers of supporters. That will make the elections look like a one-party political thing!

Within the above context, one political analyst in his very illuminating and interesting article published on a local media called Chanzo on August 27, 2025, was very pessimistic about the implications of the 2025 General Election under the prevailing political circumstances, for Tanzania, saying that the elections may mark the beginning of the most historically uncertain period the East African Community nation has ever seen.

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