Tanzania’s electoral commission has officially declared President Samia Suluhu Hassan the winner of the 2025 general election, granting her a full five-year mandate with a staggering 97.66% of the vote.
While the government celebrates the landslide as a mandate for continued infrastructure expansion and economic stability, the victory has been eclipsed by the country’s most severe political crisis in decades.
Since the October 29 polls, major urban centers like Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, and Arusha have been gripped by violent protests, a nationwide curfew, and a sustained internet blackout.
The election has faced intense international and domestic scrutiny due to the exclusion of the ruling party’s primary challengers. The main opposition party, CHADEMA, was disqualified in April 2025 over a procedural code-of-conduct dispute, and its leader, Tundu Lissu, remains imprisoned on treason charges. Consequently, the African Union and other observers have noted that the election “did not comply” with democratic standards.
CHADEMA and various African rights groups allege a “massacre,” claiming that between 700 and 2,000 people have been killed by security forces. They have accused the police of using live ammunition and attempting to conceal evidence by removing bodies from hospitals.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo has dismissed the high death tolls as “hugely exaggerated,” maintaining that security forces acted only against “criminal elements” to restore order.
President Hassan, who originally came to power in 2021 following the death of John Magufuli, was initially hailed as a reformer for easing media restrictions and reversing pandemic denialism. However, her 2025 re-election campaign has seen her governance style shift toward what critics describe as “managed democracy.”
As the nation remains under a heavy security presence, the opposition has called for a massive “repudiation” march on December 9 – Tanzania’s Independence Day – to demand a return to constitutional rule and an end to the detention of political prisoners.
