Years of pent-up anger in Tanzania over state violence and the erosion of democracy are being unleashed in election unrest, an Amnesty International expert said Thursday.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan sought to cement her position in elections on Wednesday, but the vote descended into chaos with protesters marching, tearing down her posters and attacking police and polling stations, leading to an internet shutdown and curfew.
Amnesty researcher Roland Ebole told AFP that much of the anger stems from a spate of abductions and murders targeting government critics that many blame on her son.
QUESTION: Why has there been this outbreak of unrest?
ANSWER: “People were not expecting Tanzania to get to this level. But when you push a people, when opposition candidates are either in prison or banned from participating, when people are abducted left, right, centre with no kind of accountability… when there are arbitrary arrests of opposition supporters… people have been cornered for so long, and at some point they had to retaliate and push back.”
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Q: Why is President Hassan so unpopular when her predecessor John Magufuli was also autocratic?
A: “This wave of terror is different from the lawfare (that Magufuli applied). Suluhu is literally applying terror inside and outside. Abductions… killing… but also sexual violence, harassment. The security forces are torturing dissenters. It’s a new phenomenon.
There is bottled-up anger, from within the CCM (Chama Cha Mapinduzi, the ruling party since independence) and opposition parties, but also the common citizen, because nobody is spared. The violations we have seen have even targeted a TikToker… and an ambassador who criticised the state and went missing without any form of accountability or justice.
And in the middle of this business is the president’s son (Abdul Halim Hafidh Ameir). People have argued that he is behind most of the atrocities that we are witnessing in the country and doing it on behalf of the mother. And this could be something that is really angering other members of the CCM.”
Q: What is the role of the military, having seen images of them apparently supporting protesters?
A: “The army has been very instrumental, even during Magufuli’s death, in keeping order when a transfer of power is concerned. This time around, we are waiting to see what its role will be in all of this, regarding the curfew, the election period, when a winner will be declared.
It’s really confusing. (The communications blackout) is dangerous, because now we do not know exactly what is happening. There is a lot of tension, even within the ruling party itself, and maybe within the state. How this plays out, how this turns out, I think we wait to see.”
AFP