First Opposition Rally After Political Party Ban

Tanzania – The biggest opposition party in Tanzania hosted its first large-scale gathering on Saturday following the lifting of a ban imposed in 2016, giving rise to optimism that the government is serious to enhancing political freedom in the East African country.

Jon Mrema, the Chadema party’s director of media and foreign affairs, told cheering supporters, “It was not easy after those seven years of forbidding political meetings.”

In the lakeside city of Mwanza, thousands of Chadema supporters gathered at the Furahisha grounds dressed in the party’s blue, red, and white colors.