Tanzania: Opposition presidential candidate Luhaga Mpina barred from running for second time

Tanzania's electoral commission on Monday said it had disqualified opposition presidential candidate Luhaga Mpina for the second time. 

Mpina leads the Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT-Wazalendo), the country’s second largest opposition party. 

The commission’s move comes just a few days after Mpina successfully challenged a first decision in court to disqualify him. The court ruling had forced the commission to approve Mpina’s nomination, a decision now reversed. 

The ACT-Wazalendo dismissed the disqualification as "baseless" and politically-motivated. 

Mpina’s exclusion leaves President Samia Suluhu Hassan - who came into power without being directly elected after the death of President John Magufuli in March 2021 - a clear run at next month's presidential election, with seemingly only candidates from minor parties allowed to compete. 

The leading opposition party CHADEMA was disqualified in April after failing to sign the electoral code of conduct, as part of its call for electoral reforms. 

CHADEMA’s leader Tundu Lissu has been in jail for over five months after being charged with treason in April. He has denied the accusations.

Rights groups say Lissu's detention and the increasing repression against government critics in recent months point to a government crackdown ahead of the election.

In June, human rights experts from the United Nations called on the Tanzanian government to "stop the enforced disappearance of political opponents, human rights defenders and journalists, as a tool of repression in the electoral context."

“Curtailing press and media freedom, and intimidating journalists and human rights defenders, is unacceptable. We are alarmed by reports of a pattern of repression in the lead-up to Tanzania’s general election in October,” the experts said.