As 29 million liberal minded Tanzanians head to cast their votes tomorrow Wednesday, 27 October 2020, less do they know the outcome of the elections are already out and de facto and de jure imperial president dictator John Pombe Maghufuli together with his CCM members of parliament have already won in partnership with NEC and are now busy planning on how to change the constitution to lift five years two term limit for president to pave way for him to remain in power for decades.
President Maghufuli and his main challenger Tundu Lissu
Tanzanian presidential elections has seen 17 candidates rise to the top job but competition is between the incumbent president John Pombe Maghufuli of CCM and Tundu Lissu of CHADEMA party who have made a coalition with ACT Wazalendo party to oust the president who ascended to power in 2015.
After ascending to powers, Maghufuli turned to be Africa's most controversial leader and joined the list of dictators. He had mostly restricted opposition movements, human rights activists and media on matters of the politics and Elections.
Recently Maghufuli acknowledged the president term limit need to be revisited in a move that saw analysts give a red light of a new Museveni in Tanzania and activists move to court for interpretation of the constitution.
His main challenger Tundu Lissu had been in exile in Kenya and Belgium since 2017 after surviving an attempted assassination after he was shot 16 times. He had sworn not to accept stolen or rigged elections.
Lissu has been quoted saying, "We will call millions of our people onto the streets who will take mass democratic and peaceful action to defend the integrity of the election, to defend their voice – if it comes to that"
This came after Maghufuli burned any opinion polls in the country as well as foreign media and journalists.
Tundu Lissu arriving to Tanzania from exile
Some of the opposition mps in unclear circumstances were not cleared by NEC to contest in tomorrow's parliamentary elections in a move that have been strongly criticized by activists and opposition leaders. Some of the aspirants are missing ahead of the polls. The government had also been barring opposition parties from holding most public gatherings. Lissu campaign was also disrupted and halted by the ruling party days to election.
Violence had already erupted ahead of elections and is expected to escalate as Tanzanians oppose rigged elections. Opposition is claiming 9 people have been shot dead by police during demonstrations as they blocked the roads to stop transportation of voting materials. Handful of youths also arrested for causing chaos and throwing stones to police officers.
Police dispersing opposition supporters
There's also claim by the opposition that president Maghufuli is using soldiers, police and militia known as 'zombies' to curb any resistance. This is a political error that might have dare consequences worse that that of Nigerian in Kenya's neighbouring country, Tanzania. All in all is just a matter of wait and see as Tanzanian opposition sworn to oust the ruling party whether by ballot or bullet while ruling party sworn to remain in power whether by hook or crook.
#TIA
Comments
Post a Comment