The head of Tanzania’s opposition and a past contender for president, Tundu Lissu, has announced that he will return home this month to “write a new chapter,” following the government’s decision to relax the prohibition on political demonstrations.
Upon resuming office in March 2021 following the passing of her predecessor John Magufuli, President Samia Suluhu Hassan removed the six-and-a-half-year prohibition on political gatherings this week as part of her reconciliation policy.
While other political rallies and protests were prohibited by Magufuli’s 2016 prohibition, elected officials were permitted to hold rallies in their home districts.
Lissu announced on Twitter on Friday, according to Aljazeera, that he would return home and resume work on January 25 “With the lifting of the illegal ban on political activity, it’s now time to return home and get back to work.”
In a speech streamed live on YouTube and carried on local channels in Tanzania, Lissu said “we cannot continue to endlessly live in exile”.
“I am optimistic that we will write a new chapter this year … 2023 is an important year in the history of our country,” he said.
Lissu made the following remarks in a speech that was broadcast live on YouTube and on Tanzanian local channels:
After being wounded 16 times, predominantly in the lower abdomen, in an attack by unidentified assailants in the administrative capital Dodoma in September of that year, Lissu originally departed the country to seek treatment overseas.
In the year before the attack, he had been taken into custody eight times. Lissu made a brief comeback in 2020 to run against Magufuli, who passed away just five months after being elected to his second term.
Lissu received 13% of the vote, however his CHADEMA party contested the results since there were alleged to be numerous irregularities.
Soon after the election, he received death threats and escaped to the German ambassador’s house in Tanzania before traveling to Belgium.
In July 2021, when Lissu’s party colleague, Freeman Mbowe, was detained on terrorism-related charges, hopes for reform under Hassan began to fade. After seven months, he was allowed to go free, but some people called Hassan a “dictator.”
Early in 2022, the president and Lissu had a face-to-face meeting in Brussels, which renewed optimism that change might be on the horizon.
Since assuming office, Hassan has undone some of Magufuli’s most divisive actions, including easing a ban on four newspapers, and he has pledged to enact reforms that the opposition has long called for.
