Tanzania arrests top opposition figure Lissu after rally

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DAR ES SALAAM - High-profile Tanzanian opposition figure, Tundu Lissu, was arrested by police on Wednesday, his party said, after he attended a rally in the country's south.

The East African nation has increasingly cracked down on its opposition, with Lissu's party accusing President Samia Suluhu Hassan's government of returning the country to the repressive tactics of her predecessor, John Magufuli.

Tanzania is scheduled to hold general elections in October, after Hassan's party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), swept local elections last year.

Lissu, leader of opposition party Chadema, was attending a rally in Mbinga, a town in the southern Ruvuma region.

"The Chairperson was arrested along with other party members, and the police are currently dispersing citizens at the venue using tear gas," the party said on X.

It said it was monitoring the situation, adding that officers "have not disclosed the reasons for Lissu's arrest" nor what station he was taken to.

The party called on police to "release our leaders immediately and without any conditions".

It is not the first time Lissu -- a trained lawyer and former MP between 2010 and 2017, when he survived an assassination attempt -- has been detained by authorities.

He was arrested in November ahead of local polls, and was briefly detained the previous month after riot police prevented a rally in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

Officers have repeatedly and forcibly broken up rallies, Chadema says.

The party has accused security forces of responsibility for the disappearances of several of its members, as well as the killing of at least one member of its national secretariat last year.

'Not credible'

November's polls were the first electoral test for Hassan since she took office after the sudden death of her authoritarian predecessor Magufuli in 2021.

Following the CCM's landslide win, Chadema said the elections had been manipulated.

The party has said it will petition the High Court to demand reforms ahead of the national election.

Lissu warned last year that Chadema would "block the elections through confrontation" unless the electoral system was reformed.

The opposition's demands have long been ignored by the ruling party.

Hassan was initially feted for easing restrictions that Magufuli had imposed on the opposition and the media in the country of 67 million people.

But rights groups and Western governments have criticised what they see as renewed repression, with the arrests of Chadema politicians as well as abductions and murders of opposition figures.