Tanzania: main opponent arrested amid constitutional debate
Freeman Mbowe (here in March 2020) was arrested this Wednesday, July 21, 2021 in Tanzania.
REUTERS / Emmanuel Herman
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The chairman of the main opposition party, Chadema, was arrested on the night of Wednesday, July 21, 2021. Freeman Mbowe was picked up with ten of his companions in a police raid on his hotel in Mwanza, where they planned to organize a rally to demand constitutional reforms.
An interpellation which revives the memory of the authoritarian abuses of the late President Magufuli.
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For the Tanzanian opposition, the repression continues.
The Chadema party accuses the new president Samia Suluhu Hassan of reproducing the same dictatorship as her predecessor John Magafuli.
Because this new arrest of their leader, Freeman Mbowe, is reminiscent of all the others he has already suffered.
As in 2020,
where he was arrested with a hundred people
after denouncing massive fraud during the general elections.
This time it is not known where this former presidential candidate was taken.
Freeman Mbowe was returning to his hotel at 2:30 am when he was approached by "
an army of police officers
", according to his communications director.
He had planned to hold a rally today to demand a new Constitution.
Since 2013, negotiations to try to rebalance the division of power and end the imperial presidency have stalled.
For President Suluhu Hassan, these constitutional reforms are seditious.
In a video posted on July 7, she urged Tanzanians to keep the peace and avoid provocateurs.
Because according to her, we must first revive the economy after the pandemic, then deal with constitutional and political questions.
The pandemic is precisely the reason given to prohibit the gathering of Freeman Mbowe.
However, there will be no restrictions this Wednesday for a Premier League football match, and not for the concert of the Congolese artist Fally Ipupa next Saturday.
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Tanzania
Samia Suluhu Hassan