The streets of Dar es Salaam shook before noon. Smoke curled over shattered polling tents.
Ballot boxes lay scattered, charred, abandoned. What began as a national vote had turned into chaos, a contest drowned by violence and silence.
Videos on X and TikTok showed police firing tear gas into crowds as protesters torched polling stations in Mwanza and Arusha.
“They’re stealing our future,” one young man shouted in a viral clip before being bundled into a police truck.
Human rights observers spoke of “a coordinated crackdown” aimed at blunting any show of defiance.
Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan. Photo/courtesy
Months of suppression
This eruption was not sudden. It followed months of suppression characterised by arrests of opposition figures, shuttered rallies, and a courtroom drama that jailed CHADEMA leader Tundu Lissu on treason charges.
“They’ve locked the ballot before the vote,” a party official told AFP.
At the centre of it all is President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who is seeking her first full mandate since stepping into power in 2021 after the sudden death of John Pombe Magufuli.
Hailed then as a reformer, Suluhu was the country’s first female leader, a calm counterpoint to Magufuli’s iron hand.
But as this election unfolds, critics say she has inherited and perfected the same machinery of control.
“She speaks softly, but the hand is firm,” a diplomat told Reuters.
Her ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) has ruled Tanzania since independence. Its dominance now looks less like loyalty and more like fear. Opposition rallies were banned, activists abducted, and voters threatened.
Protests in Tanzania 🇹🇿 on Election Day
🎥 Credit: @RoncliffeOdit pic.twitter.com/5SpSPk2egd
— Seth Olale (@SethOlale) October 29, 2025
Internet shut
When the polls opened, much of the internet was dark: WhatsApp was frozen, X was throttled, and Facebook was unreachable.
“This blackout is a curtain over democracy,” said NetBlocks, confirming the nationwide shutdown.
Tanzania is one of Africa’s youngest nations – its median age is barely 18.
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Millions of new voters watched the vote unravel through whispers and smuggled clips.
“We wanted to choose,” said a first-time voter in Dodoma. “Now we just want to stay alive.”
International observers have called for calm and transparency, but rights groups warn that the damage is done. Amnesty described the polls as “a tragic step backwards”.
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