The just-concluded acrimonious presidential election in Tanzania was not credible, free, and fair. That is the verdict of The Southern African Development Committee Electoral Observation Mission to Tanzania.
This was stated in a preliminary report by Richard Msowoya, former speaker of Malawi’s parliament and head of the SADC Electoral Observation Mission to the 2025 general election in Tanzania.
“It is the SEOM’s tentative conclusion that, in most areas, voters could not express their democratic will. Overall, the 2025 General Election in the United Republic of Tanzania fell short of the requirements of the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections,” the report said.
The report highlighted censorship, voter intimidation, low voter turning and decried perceived rigging during the election exercise.
“The Mission noted a very low voter turnout in all polling stations observed. Some polling centres did not have voters at all,” it said. “The Mission observed that in some polling stations, there were multiple orderly stacked ballots in the ballot box during voting, which created a perception of ballot stuffing, and an impression that individual(s) cast more than one vote at a time with the intention to cheat the election system.”
For three consecutive days, violent protests rocked Tanzania amid the election. Despite internet shutdown, footage of protesters destroying President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s posters circulated on social media.
While the opposition party CHADEMA said over 700 people were killed by police during the protests, the EU, UK, Canadian and Norwegian missions in Tanzania expressed concerns about the violent crisis.
Amnesty International also said Tanzania’s authorities “have intensified the use of repressive laws to silence dissent, targeting journalists, civil society, human rights defenders, and opposition voices”.
Meanwhile,Ms Hassan has been sworn in for a second term in office at a military base in Dodoma on Monday.
