Tanzania: opposition rallies are lastly unbanned – however this doesn’t suggest democratic reform is coming

In Tanzania, the political rally is again. Chadema, Tanzania’s main opposition get together, held mass rallies exterior the official election marketing campaign for the primary time in six and a half years on 21 January 2023.

It may accomplish that as a result of three weeks earlier, President Samia Suluhu Hassan lifted the ban on public rallies. Assassination-attempt survivor and opposition politician Tundu Lissu returned to Tanzania on 25 January to participate in them.

The ban on rallies was launched in June 2016 by the late President John Magufuli. It turned a central plank of an authoritarian turn initiated by the ruling get together, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), however finally propelled by Magufuli. The ban, nevertheless, appeared to have an effect on solely the opposition – CCM continued to convene rallies with impunity all through.

Magufuli’s dying on 17 March 2021 raised the twin prospects that the CCM regime would possibly loosen its iron grip, and that in such a context, the opposition would possibly rebuild. The top of the ban on rallies has implications for each these prospects.

I’ve spent 10 years researching Chadema’s grassroots organising and what it calls the struggle for democracy. I’m writing a ebook on rallies in Tanzania.

For my part, the unbanning of rallies will tremendously alter the house during which the opposition has to function. Nevertheless, this doesn’t set Tanzania on any path of democratic reform. The timing and wider context nonetheless leaves the opposition with an enormous job forward.

The very actual risk stays that Hassan has unbanned rallies to sign that she plans future democratic reforms – with out really enacting any.

Learn extra: Tanzania’s Hassan has put out positive signals: deeper change is yet to come

A tradition of rallies

It’s simple to underestimate the significance of the rally in Tanzania. In a lot of the worldwide north, political rallies are issues seen on TV and attended by ultra-partisans. However not in Tanzania.

In 2015, I oversaw the gathering of a nationally representative survey in Tanzania. It confirmed that within the final month of the nation’s election marketing campaign, 69% of all individuals attended rallies. This determine dwarfs its equivalents within the world north. Within the 2016 US marketing campaign, simply 7% of people attended public conferences.

Not solely did a big proportion of Tanzanians attend rallies. Additionally they attended them ceaselessly. The same survey data confirmed that the typical particular person attended seven such rallies within the final month of the marketing campaign, or simply underneath one each 4 days.

In Tanzania, the rally is, or in political campaigning turns into, a medium of mass communication, simply because it does throughout much of the global south. Indefinitely banning rallies does to public communication in Tanzania what indefinitely banning tv, or the web, would do within the world north.

Tanzania’s ban on rallies was doubly painful for the opposition. First, it was a ban, in impact, solely on opposition rallies.

Second, the opposition wants rallies in a manner that the ruling get together doesn’t. Within the shadow of state coercion, media shops supply the opposition scarce and hostile protection. The rally affords the opposition a technique to attain the 73% of Tanzanians who say they don’t (instantly) get information by way of social media.

Rallies and grassroots organising

The ban on rallies was lifted for the election marketing campaign in 2020, however the opposition wants rallies between elections too – that is after they organise.

Chadema leaders and activists told me that between 2007 and 2015, they based get together branches throughout a lot of Tanzania. Their work paid off. The survey data I collected confirmed that within the 2015 marketing campaign, Chadema’s floor marketing campaign was so robust that it made at the very least as many house-to-house visits because the ruling get together, maybe extra.

They achieved this party-building feat largely via rallies. Groups of get together leaders toured the nation convening rallies. They imparted their messages and recruited attendees. Observe-up groups organised these new recruits into branches.

In parallel, lone organisers ran their very own solo party-building initiatives. These native leaders, amongst them the 2020 presidential candidate Tundu Lissu, held public conferences in villages. Incrementally, they recruited native activists who turned the leaders of latest branches.

Immediately, although, it’s laborious to understand how effectively these buildings have endured. Opposition activists have been subjected to on a regular basis oppression. It peaked throughout the violence of the 2020 election, and was designed to demoralise and demobilise them.

Which means that opposition events have their work minimize out. They need to re-join public debates after years of censorship, and reorganise and remotivate their supporters unexpectedly.

This makes the timing of the top of the ban vital.

Chadema’s grassroots organising for the 2015 election started simply months after the 2010 election. Revoking the ban now, simply over two and a half years earlier than the October 2025 election, leaves opposition events with a larger job than they’ve confronted earlier than – and fewer time during which to do it.

President Hassan: reforming or gaslighting?

Unbanning the rally is probably essentially the most concrete opening of political house that Hassan has introduced since she was sworn in as president.

Some will probably be tempted to learn the unbanning of the rally as an indication of issues to come back. However that might be unduly optimistic.

It could be that Hassan plans to enact a wider programme of democratic reforms. Or it might be that she lifted the ban exactly in order that it seems like that’s her plan.

Learn extra: Tanzania’s Hassan faces her first political test: constitutional reform

Finally, both studying may change into proper. Deciphering the intentions of the usually inscrutable Hassan is a matter of guesswork. However there are causes to be sceptical.

First, the rally ban was a part of an authoritarian structure. The ban is gone, however the structure stays. This leaves the regime with means aplenty to protect its dominance.

Second, excluding the Magufuli years, the regime has lengthy maintained the looks of being the type that might oversee democratic reforms – whereas implementing few of them.

The significance of the rally’s return might not be in what the regime will grant. As an alternative, it might be in what the opposition can demand. Chadema used its first rally to name once more for a brand new structure.