Tanzania opposition leader arrested ahead of local polls: party

One of Tanzania's main opposition leaders, Freeman Mbowe, was detained by police on Friday, his Chadema party said on X, just days ahead of local elections.

Chadema had protested earlier this week that many of its candidates had been "unfairly" disqualified from running in the November 27 polls in towns and villages across the nation.

"On 22 November 2024, the police force ambushed a convoy in Halungu Forest, located in Mbozi District, and arrested the National Chairman of the party, Freeman Mbowe," Chadema director of communication and foreign affairs John Mrema said on X.

Mrema said Mbowe and other Chadema leaders were stopped at a police roadblock, where "the police forcibly opened the car doors, assaulted those inside, and forcefully arrested them."

"The police have taken away our leaders without disclosing their destination, and we still do not know where they are being held or for what reasons," he added, urging their release.

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

They will also be the first test at the ballot box for President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who took office after the sudden death of her authoritarian predecessor John Magufuli in 2021.

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 criticised what they see as renewed repression ahead of the elections, with arrests of Chadema politicians as well as abductions and murders of opposition figures.

Mrema also said that prior to his arrest Mbowe had been blocked by police from speaking at a rally of supporters in the southern town of Mlowo.