Tanzania’s main opposition party has been disqualified from upcoming general elections, the country’s election chief said, after it refused to sign an electoral code of conduct.
The east African nation has increasingly cracked down on its opposition ahead of a general election due in October.
The opposition Chadema party has accused President Samia Suluhu Hassan of returning to the repressive tactics of her predecessor, John Magufuli.
Chadema leader Tundu Lissu, who was arrested and charged with treason earlier in the week, previously said that his party would not participate in the polls without electoral reform.
On Saturday, Chadema said the party’s secretary-general John Mnyika would not attend an Independent National Elections Commission (INEC) meeting to sign the government’s electoral code of conduct.
The decision was “informed by the lack of a written response” to the party’s “proposal and demands for essential electoral reforms”, it said in a statement.
INEC Director of Elections Ramadhani Kailima said following the meeting that “any party that hasn’t signed today will not be allowed to take part in the general election or any other elections for the next five years”.
“There will be no second chance,” he told reporters.
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