Neither Electoral nor Constitutional Reforms Will Liberate Tanzania
(Translated)
News:
As Tanzania prepares to hold general elections in October 2025, there is an atmosphere of political division and diverging positions among politicians and political parties, leading to widespread debate in the political arena.
Comment:
The current atmosphere of political tension preceding the upcoming general elections this year in Tanzania has produced three main political trends, each of which enjoys broad support from different segments of the population across the country.
The first group consists of those calling for urgent electoral reforms, and this trend is led by the main opposition party "Chadema" under the slogan "No reforms, no elections." This group believes that in the absence of reforms, elections cannot be free and fair, and therefore should be boycotted.
The second group calls for constitutional reforms and is led by the second opposition party, the Alliance for Change and Transparency. This group focuses on amending the constitution, but unlike "Chadema", it does not adopt the option of boycotting the elections.
As for the third group, it supports the status quo and supports the current government, as this group sees no need to make reforms in the election management system or in the constitution. Rather, they support the current laws and procedures, and they are under great influence from the current government and the ruling Revolutionary Party.
However, these three trends, with their parties and supporters, will not achieve any real change that serves the country or the masses, contrary to what they claim.
As for the supporters of electoral reforms, they must remember that Tanzania has witnessed many previous attempts at electoral reform, including in the years 2010, 2019, and most recently in 2023 when the National Electoral Commission Act was enacted. However, these reforms have not borne fruit.
As for the supporters of constitutional reforms led by the Alliance for Change and Transparency, who also launched their campaign in 2024, let them know that Tanzania has witnessed since its official independence in 1961 several constitutional reforms and amendments, including in the years 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, and 1977. Zanzibar also made amendments in 1963, 1979, and 1984. Since then, amendments have continued in both parts of the United Republic of Tanzania, without achieving tangible results.
As for the supporters of the status quo from the supporters of the ruling party and the government, they are also not on the safe side, as the weaknesses in the current laws and constitutions have become clear to everyone.
What the three trends have failed to understand is that the essence of the problem does not lie in the electoral laws or the constitution, nor even in the opposition - as the government's supporters see it - but rather in the capitalist system itself, from which all the laws and regulations currently in force in Tanzania and in developing countries are derived, and which are originally foreign colonial laws.
Through these capitalist laws, colonial domination is imposed on Tanzania and the developing world, enabling capitalist countries to exploit its wealth and resources.
Therefore, the real and effective change to liberate Tanzania and others must focus on eliminating this corrupt capitalist principle and replacing it with Islam under its global leadership; the Caliphate.
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
Saeed Bitomwa
Member of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Tanzania