Africa
Tanzania’s Top Opposition Party Disqualified From Polls, Election Commission Says
Tanzania’s main opposition party CHADEMA has been disqualified from elections due later this year, a senior election commission official said on Saturday, days after the party’s leader was charged with treason for allegedly seeking to disrupt the vote.
Ramadhani Kailima, director of elections at the Independent National Elections Commission, said CHADEMA had failed to sign a code of conduct document due on Saturday, thereby nullifying its participation in the presidential and parliamentary elections expected to take place in October.
“Any party that did not sign the code of conduct will not participate in the general election,” he said, adding that the ban would also cover all by-elections until 2030.
CHADEMA leader Tundu Lissu, a former presidential candidate, was charged with treason on Thursday. The decision to disqualify his party will intensify scrutiny of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s record on rights as she seeks re-election.
Rights campaigners and opposition parties have accused Hassan’s government of a growing crackdown on political opponents, citing a string of unexplained abductions and killings. The government has denied the allegations and has opened an investigation into reported abductions.
Hassan’s party Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) has said in the past that the government respects human rights and has denied any involvement in human rights violations.
CHADEMA did not immediately comment on the election commission’s decision. Earlier on Saturday, the party said it would not participate in the election code of conduct signing ceremony, as part of a push it is making for reforms.
Prosecutors accused Lissu on Thursday of calling on the public to launch a rebellion and prevent the election from taking place. He was not allowed to enter a plea on the treason charge, which carries a death penalty.
CHADEMA had previously threatened to boycott the elections unless significant reforms are made to an electoral process it says favours the ruling party.
(Reuters)
Kenya Insights allows guest blogging, if you want to be published on Kenya’s most authoritative and accurate blog, have an expose, news TIPS, story angles, human interest stories, drop us an email on [email protected] or via Telegram
Death Deferred: How Kenya’s Government Is Bending Aviation Law to Shield the Rogue Developers Strangling Wilson Airport
Hit South African Show Gets The World Talking About Polygamy and Cheating
South Sudan: Fifteen Years of Independence, US$70 Billion in Oil Wealth and GDP Per Capita Cut by Two-Thirds
COFEK Escalates Bid to Oust Gambling Boss Karimi as Fresh Court Battle Puts GRA Leadership Under Siege
Desperate Family Pleads For Ruto’s Help After Safaricom Defies Court Order in Son’s Murder, Exposing Deeper Data Privacy Crisis
Nyali MP Moha Jicho Pevu Caught Up In Alleged Sh44 Million KPA Debt Scam
Somalia Deputy PM Held at JKIA, Deported Over Questionable Acquisition of Kenyan Passport
The White-Coat Heist: How MP Shah Hospital Ran a Decade-Long Double-Extraction Racket While Hiding Behind Charity Status
The Patriarch, His Children, and a Buried Sh3.9 Billion Fraud: The Story of Titus Muya That Kenya Was Never Meant to Read
The Founder’s Ransom: How Titus Muya Had to Be Paid Sh231 Million to Let Go of Family Bank and Why That Bill Is Now Yours
Businessman Philip Waithaka Kinuthia’s Minor Son Allegedly Drove Drunk, Killed Two Peponi Students in Ngong Road Horror Crash as Claims of Cover-Up Intensify
Inside NCBA’s Decline: How a Banking Giant Lost Its Strategic Edge
South Sudan: Adut Salva Kiir’s Shadow Treasury Exposed
Cement, Cash and Courts: How the Hashu Dynasty Crushed the Ramji Brothers for Fourteen Years and Why the Walls Are Now Closing In
Standard Chartered Ghosts Haunt Joshua Oigara At Stanbic As Whistleblower Spills Beans
Inside The Urban Planning Cartel That Owns Nairobi
THE VULTURE AND THE SCHEME How Nairobi West Hospital Became the Most Dangerous Institution in Kenya’s SHA Ecosystem and Why the Books Must Be Audited Now
The Patriarch, His Children, and a Buried Sh3.9 Billion Fraud: The Story of Titus Muya That Kenya Was Never Meant to Read
The President’s Daughter and The Missing Witness: How Adut Salva Kiir’s Shadow Treasury Silenced Its Most Dangerous Critic
How Adil Popat Saved His Empire On The Eve Of Imperial Bank Collapse and Why Kenya’s Mainstream Media Buried The Story
-
News2 weeks agoBusinessman Philip Waithaka Kinuthia’s Minor Son Allegedly Drove Drunk, Killed Two Peponi Students in Ngong Road Horror Crash as Claims of Cover-Up Intensify
-
Investigations1 week agoTHE VULTURE AND THE SCHEME How Nairobi West Hospital Became the Most Dangerous Institution in Kenya’s SHA Ecosystem and Why the Books Must Be Audited Now
-
Business1 day agoThe Patriarch, His Children, and a Buried Sh3.9 Billion Fraud: The Story of Titus Muya That Kenya Was Never Meant to Read
-
Business5 days agoBURRIED TWICE: The Victoria Bank CEO Yogesh Pattni Files
-
Business1 week agoInside the Billion-Shilling Betrayal: How Senior Treasury Officials Plundered a UN Poverty Fund and Built a Real Estate Empire on the Backs of Kenya’s Rural Poor
-
Business2 weeks agoThe Listing That Doesn’t Lie: What the Market Isn’t Saying About Family Bank’s NSE Debut
-
Business1 week agoThe Banker Who Walked Away: How Yogesh Pattni Survived a Financial Crime Scandal That Shook Kenya
-
News7 days agoMy Life Is In Danger: Investor Drops Bombshell Expose On Thomas Ogutu CEO VeGrid Ltd And Fugitive Nairobi CEC Charles Kerich – DCI Inaction And Corruption Network Exposed