Tanzania Opposition Leader Freeman Mbowe Released on Bail

Tanzania’s main opposition leader Freeman Mbowe has been released on bail, his party said Saturday, after he was detained just days before local polls.

The elections are viewed as a barometer for President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who took over in 2021 with promises of reforms and improved civic freedoms — only to disappoint international observers, who point to a return to her predecessor’s repressive policies.

The party said on Friday that he and other party figures had been “forcibly” detained by officers after leaving a rally that police broke up using tear gas in the country’s south.

In a post on social media platform X early Saturday, Chadema confirmed Mbowe and other detained figures from the party had been released on bail.

“Some of our colleagues were severely beaten by the police despite the fact that nobody resisted the arrest,” Mbowe said following his release.

He said officers had accused them of “violating the campaign schedule” with their intended rally, labelling the allegation “baseless”.

“I believe this is a deliberate move to disrupt our planned campaigns,” he said, in a video shared by the opposition.

He added that police were still holding some Chadema members, and that he and others had been told to report back on November 29, but that he intended to consult lawyers.

Only last month, Mbowe and his deputy Tundu Lissu — as well as other opposition figures — were briefly detained after riot police prevented a mass rally in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

– Barometer –

The local polls slated for November 27 are expected to be a barometer of the political landscape ahead of a presidential election due next October.

The arrests come only days after Mbowe protested over the apparent disqualification of scores of Chadema candidates hoping to run in the local polls, calling the move by the authorities a “deliberate manipulation”.

Hassan took office after the sudden death of her authoritarian predecessor John Magufuli in 2021 and has yet to be tested at the ballot box.

She was initially feted for easing restrictions that Magufuli had imposed on the opposition and the media in the country of around 67 million people.

But rights groups and Western governments have criticized what they see as renewed repression ahead of the elections, with arrests of Chadema politicians as well as abductions and murders of opposition figures.

By AFP