Tanzania heads to polls with opposition barred and democracy under strain

Pedestrians walk past a billboard for Tanzanian presidential candidate Samia Suluhu Hassan, of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party, in Arusha on 8 October 2025. AP

Tanzanians are voting on Wednesday in a general election that looks set to keep President Samia Suluhu Hassan in power. But with opposition leaders jailed and political freedoms under pressure, the vote could mark another step back for democracy in one of East Africa’s more stable nations.

Hassan is running for her first full term at the head of Chama Cha Mapinduzi – Swahili for “Party of the Revolution” – which has ruled the country since its independence from Britain in 1961. The party has never lost a national election.