FEAR HAUNTS TANZANIA ELECTIONS

There were few voters in polling centres in Tanzania's largest city on Wednesday since the biggest rivals of President Samia Suluhu Hassan were either in prison or not allowed to run.
The government and the police made frequent threats that protests would not be tolerated, and stationed tanks around the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, on Wednesday to prevent any trouble.

But the heightened security may have gone too far, with people frightened to go to vote. Some of the busiest polling stations in the city were nearly empty an hour after polls opened, AFP journalists observed, although they were bustling during this hour in previous elections.

"We will be mobilizing people from their homes and the streets to vote," a government Revolution Party official in the Temeke district of Dar es Salaam told an interview on condition that their name not be used."We have to save the situation because some lack confidence," the official said.

One food vendor, who gave only her first name Saada, 40, said she was too frightened to vote. "I could not go outside today for fear of violence," she told AFP.
Amnesty International has denounced a "wave of terror" ahead of the election involving "enforced disappearance and torture. and extrajudicial killings of opposition activists and leaders.".

President Hassan, 65, will consolidate her role with an overwhelming win which will close the mouths of her critics in her own party, analysts maintain.
Her main challenger, Tundu Lissu, is on trial for treason, where he faces the possibility of the death sentence. His party, Chadema, has been barred from participating.
The only other serious competitor, ACT-Wazalendo's Luhaga Mpina, was eliminated on technical grounds.

Hassan was advanced from vice-president in 2021 on the death of her iron-fisted predecessor, John Magufuli, but stood alone as the country's first female president. She was initially welcomed by democracy activists with the easing of restrictions on the media and opposition, but hopes were soon shattered.

Human Rights Watch said "the authorities have cracked down on the political opposition and critics of the ruling party, stifled the media, and eroded the independence of the electoral commission". Even ruling party members are targeted, it is feared.
Humphrey Polepole, a former CCM spokesman and Cuba ambassador, vanished from his home this month after stepping down and condemning Hassan. His family found blood stains on his premises.

The Tanganyika Law Society says it has confirmed 83 disappearances since Hassan came to power, and another 20 have surfaced in recent weeks.
AFP saw the polls open in Zanzibar, where analysts are forecasting a closer race due to the island's greater freedom.
But foreign reporters have been essentially shut out of going to the mainland to observe the vote there.

Hassan has done nothing to drive out the "thugs" with whom Magufuli packed the intelligence service, a local analyst in the economic hub of Dar es Salaam said on condition of anonymity fearing reprisals. They are laser-sharp on any whiff of internal opposition and suppressed the opposition prior to the last election in 2020. "We thought Magufuli was a blip and the 2020 elections were an anomaly. My worry is that this is now the new normal," the analyst added. Protests are rare in Tanzania, partly because of a comparatively wealthy economy, which grew by 5.5 percent last year, according to the World Bank, led by strong agriculture, tourism and mining sectors.

Hassan made gargantuan promises of infrastructure development and coverage for universal health in a bid to woo voters. But police said they arrested 17 people over the weekend in Kagera's northwestern region who were planning election day turmoil. "I want to assure citizens that there will be no security threat on voting day," Hassan stated at an election rally recently. "We are security-prepared. Those who did not participate in the competition should not try to disrupt our election."