Tanzania opposition leader to end exile after rally ban lifted
Tundu Lissu, Tanzania’s opposition leader and former presidential candidate, has announced he will return home from exile in Europe this month to “write a new chapter” following the government’s decision to relax a ban on political demonstrations.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan removed the six-and-a-half-year prohibition on political rallies last week as part of her reconciliation campaign following the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, in March 2021.
Magufuli implemented the ban in 2016, allowing elected lawmakers to have rallies in their constituencies but prohibiting other political gatherings and protests.
“With the lifting of the illegal ban on political activity, it’s now time to return home and get back to work,” Lissu said on Twitter on Friday, saying he would arrive on January 25.
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 first left the country in 2017 to seek treatment elsewhere after being shot 16 times, predominantly in the lower abdomen, in an attack by unknown attackers in the administrative capital Dodoma that September.
In the year leading up to the incident, he had been detained eight times. Lissu reappeared for a few months in 2020 to run against Magufuli, who died only five months after winning his second term.
Lissu received 13% of the vote, however his CHADEMA party contested the result due to serious irregularities.
He fled to the residence of the German ambassador in Tanzania soon after the election after receiving death threats before leaving for Belgium.
Hopes for reform under Hassan dimmed in July 2021, when Lissu’s party comrade Freeman Mbowe was arrested on terrorism charges. He was released after seven months, but some critics labelled Hassan a “dictator”.
The president sat down face-to-face with Lissu in Brussels in early 2022, again buoying hopes that change could be on the horizon.
Since taking power, Hassan reversed some of Magufuli’s most controversial policies, including lifting a ban on four newspapers, and promised reforms long demanded by the opposition.
“President Samia Suluhu Hassan, through her government and party, have shown they are ready for a new journey. We need to demonstrate that we are also ready for that,” Lissu said in the video address. “I am coming home for the new beginning of our nation.”
aljazeera
