Ni Pombe Au Tundu?

Tanzania’s parliamentary and presidential elections have been marred with a lot of confusion. There have been claims of voter bribery and government agencies’ use to try and silence opposition leade
rs.

The principal opposition chief, Who survived an assassination talk, Tundu Lissu, has vowed that he won’t accept the Wednesday election exercise results.

During the voting exercise, the significant streets of various towns in Tanzania were full of armed soldiers. There have been claims that Dr. John Pombe Magufuli has scanned democracy and turned to be more dictatorial than his predecessors.

Speaking to the media, Tundu Lissu, the CHADEMA presidential candidate, said, “Whatever happened yesterday was not an election,”

In response to claims that the exercise wasn’t transparent, free, and fair, the electoral commission claimed that everything was being said wasn’t true hence baseless.

Besides Tundu Lissu, the other 13 candidates were contesting for the top seat. President John Magufuli’s CCM has been in power since the country gained independence.

Despite Magufuli’s tendency to appear to be a genuine developmental focused president, his presidency has had claims of him not being a democrat and hence trying to regulate the freedom of human rights activists and opposition chiefs.

Mr. Lissu was among several others who were challenging President John Magufuli, whose party has been in power for long.

Some of the presidential results had started trickling in on Thursday. Out of 260 constituencies, 17 of them had finalized their counting, with Magufuli leading with more than 80% of the votes cast.

What will happen if Tundu Lissu stands his ground and denounces the results? Has the East African community done enough to try and bring stability to Tanzania? All we are waiting to see is how the international community will respond to Tanzania’s unfolding activities.