Elections in Tanzania: outgoing president John Magufuli faces 14 candidates

Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli.

REUTERS / Emmanuel Herman

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2 min

On October 28, Tanzanians will elect their president and their deputies.

Current President John Magufuli is running for a second term.

Since his accession to power in 2015, he has been accused of authoritarian drift, but facing him, the opposition leaves in dispersed order.

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In the November 28 election,

will face 14 opposition candidates.

Among them, Tundu Lissu, his main opponent, candidate of the Chadema party.

In 2017, the latter narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.

After being hit by 16 bullets at his home in the capital Dodoma and after multiple surgeries and a long recovery in Belgium, he was finally able to

.

System of repression

Since the start of the electoral campaign at the end of August, Tundu Lissu has gathered many supporters at his meetings.

But earlier this month, the electoral commission suspended its campaign for a week for " 

 ".

John Magufuli is accused of having set up an increasingly authoritarian system of repression since coming to power.

However, the division of the opposition for the upcoming election could favor his re-election as head of state.

In the previous election five years ago, an opposition coalition obtained an unprecedented score: 40% of the vote.

John Magufuli had won 58% of the vote.

His party, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), has been in power since the country's independence in 1961.

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• Tanzania

• John Magufuli