Voters in Tanzania will head to the polls on Wednesday to elect their president, lawmakers and local governments.

Mainland Tanzania and the semi-autonomous Zanzibar are due to hold elections for president, legislators, and local officials on Wednesday.

Incumbent President John Magufuli is seeking re-election on the mainland among a crowded field of 15 contenders. He is the candidate of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has uninterruptedly governed Tanzania – along with its predecessor, the Tanzania African National Union party (TANU) – since independence in 1961.

More than 29 million people have registered to cast their ballots. Polling stations are due to open at 7am (04:00 GMT) and close at 4pm (01:00 GMT).

In the run-up to the polls, opposition parties complained of threats and repression as the election commission disqualified dozens of opposition parliamentary candidates, while rights groups accused the government of curtailing free expression and press freedom. The government has previously rejected such accusations.

Voting will also be held in the semi-autonomous Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar, which has a history of contested polls and post-election violence.

The battle,Magufuli to wrestle the brave Tundu Lisu

The Bulldozer: John Magufuli

Magufuli, 60, is seeking a second and final five-year term in office. While opinion polls have been banned, making it difficult to predict the outcome, many analysts see Magufuli as having strong chances of winning re-election.

A former minister of public works nicknamed “The Bulldozer” by his supporters for his no-nonsense approach and his ability to get things done, Magufuli has pledged to continue the fight against corruption and wasteful spending of public money. On the campaign trail, he has also touted his government’s record on improving the country’s infrastructure.

Throughout his presidency, Magufuli has spent much of his time touring Tanzania and meeting citizens. He has even gained something of a reputation for resolving voters’ grievances on the spot while on tour, often issuing orders to local government representatives live on camera at roadside meet and greets.

Critics, however, accuse him of narrowing democratic space and stifling dissent since his election win in 2015, including by barring opposition parties from holding most public gatherings.

The president has also drawn international attention for declaring the country of almost 60 million people coronavirus-free, saying prayers had helped eliminate COVID-19. The government has not released any coronavirus figures since April.

Coverage of Wednesday’s election will be restricted after the government amended laws to require international radio and television broadcasters to have licenced local partners to get the regulatory body’s permission to air content, Amnesty International has said.

Magufuli was born in Chato district on the shores of Lake Victoria, where in 1995 he was elected to parliament to represent the area. A father of five, he is a devout Catholic who often likes singing in church choirs.

The Magic Tundu Lissu

A staunch critic of Magufuli, Tundu Lissu is the candidate for the main opposition party Chadema.

The 52-year-old’s hopes of causing an upset were boosted after his recent endorsement by leaders of the ACT-Wazalendo party, in what has been dubbed as a “loose” coalition between the country’s two leading opposition parties.

In 2017, Lissu survived an assassination attempt in the administrative capital, Dodoma, when he was shot 16 times by unknown attackers. He spent nearly three years in exile, first in neighbouring Kenya and then Belgium, where he underwent more than a dozen surgeries.

A lawyer by training and a fan of reggae music, Lissu entered politics in 2010, winning a parliamentary seat to represent his home region of Singida East. Over the years, he developed a strong reputation as a fierce government critic and became the chief whip of Chadema.

Earlier this month, Lissu told Al Jazeera that the opposition was “not going to accept stolen elections”.

“We will call millions of our people onto the streets who will take mass democratic and peaceful action to defend the integrity of the election, to defend their voice – if it comes to that,” he said.

Other presidential challengers include former Foreign Minister Bernard Membe and economist-turned-politician Ibrahim Lipumba.

Zanzibar hopefuls

Zanzibar, where some 566,000 people have registered to take part in the polls, wrapped up its election campaigns on Sunday.

The archipelago has been governed by the CCM since it joined with then-Tanganyika to form Tanzania in 1964.

President Ali Mohamed Shein is stepping down after serving two terms in office. Hussein Ali Hassan Mwinyi, son of former Tanzanian President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, is the candidate of the governing party.

He will face opposition leader Seif Sharif Hamad, who is attempting for the sixth time to take office following the introduction of multiparty democracy in 1995. Hamad alleges that every vote was stolen from him.

As part of the main opposition parties’ informal collaboration, Chadema chair Freeman Mbowe said earlier this month that his party would withdraw its presidential candidate in Zanzibar and back Hamad, of ACT-Wazalendo, which seeks a new constitution that would grant the archipelago “a full autonomy”.

Zanzibar has a history of tense elections and violence. On Sunday, the ACT-Wazalendo’s campaign manager said he had been seized and threatened by armed men, while a parliamentary candidate went missing.

Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court late Monday by a deeply divided Senate, with Republicans overpowering Democrats to install President Donald Trump’s nominee days before the election and secure a likely conservative court majority for years to come.

Trump’s choice to fill the vacancy of the late liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg potentially opens a new era of rulings on abortion, the Affordable Care Act and even his own election. Democrats were unable to stop the outcome, Trump’s third justice on the court, as Republicans race to reshape the judiciary.

Barrett, 48, will be able to start work Tuesday, her lifetime appointment as the 115th justice solidifying the court’s rightward tilt.

“This is a momentous day for America,” Trump said at a primetime swearing-in event on the South Lawn at the White House. Justice Clarence Thomas administered the Constitutional Oath to Barrett before a crowd of about 200.

Barrett told those gathered that she believes “it is the job of a judge to resist her policy preferences.” She vowed, “I will do my job without any fear or favor.”

Monday’s vote was the closest high court confirmation ever to a presidential election, and the first in modern times with no support from the minority party. The spiking COVID-19 crisis has hung over the proceedings. Vice President Mike Pence declined to preside at the Senate unless his tie-breaking vote was needed after Democrats asked him to stay away when his aides tested positive for COVID-19. The vote was 52-48, and Pence’s vote was not necessary.

“Voting to confirm this nominee should make every single senator proud,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, fending off “outlandish” criticism in a lengthy speech. During a rare weekend session he declared that Barrett’s opponents “won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.”

Barrett, a federal appeals court judge from Indiana, is expected to take the judicial oath administered by Chief Justice John Roberts in a private ceremony Tuesday at the court to begin participating in proceedings.

Underscoring the political divide during the pandemic, the Republican senators, most wearing masks, sat in their seats as is tradition for landmark votes, and applauded the outcome, with fist-bumps. Democratic senators emptied their side, heeding party leadership’s advice to not linger in the chamber. A Rose Garden event with Trump to announce Barrett’s nomination last month ended up spreading the virus, including to some GOP senators who have since returned from quarantine.

Pence’s presence would have been expected for a high-profile moment. But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and his leadership team said it would not only violate virus guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “it would also be a violation of common decency and courtesy.”

Democrats argued for weeks that the vote was being improperly rushed and insisted during an all-night Sunday session it should be up to the winner of the Nov. 3 election to name the nominee.

Speaking near midnight Sunday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called the vote “illegitimate” and “the last gasp of a desperate party.”

Several matters are awaiting decision just a week before Election Day, and Barrett could be a decisive vote in Republican appeals of orders extending the deadlines for absentee ballots in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

The justices also are weighing Trump’s emergency plea for the court to prevent the Manhattan District Attorney from acquiring his tax returns. And on Nov. 10, the court is expected to hear the Trump-backed challenge to the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. Just before the Senate voted, the court sided with Republicans in refusing to extend the deadline for absentee ballots in Wisconsin.

Trump has said he wanted to swiftly install a ninth justice to resolve election disputes and is hopeful the justices will end the health law known as “Obamacare.”

In a statement, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden tied Barrett’s nomination to the court to the Republican effort to pull down the Affordable Care Act. He called her confirmation “rushed and unprecedented” and a stark reminder to Americans that “your vote matters.”

During several days of public testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barrett was careful not to disclose how she would rule on any such cases.

She presented herself as a neutral arbiter and suggested, “It’s not the law of Amy.” But her writings against abortion and a ruling on “Obamacare” show a deeply conservative thinker.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, praised the mother of seven as a role model for conservative women. “This is historic,” Graham said.

Republicans focused on her Catholic faith, criticizing earlier Democratic questions about her beliefs. Graham called Barrett “unabashedly pro-life.”

At the start of Trump’s presidency, McConnell engineered a Senate rules change to allow confirmation by a majority of the 100 senators, rather than the 60-vote threshold traditionally needed to advance high court nominees over objections. That was an escalation of a rules change Democrats put in place to advance other court and administrative nominees under President Barack Obama.

Republicans are taking a political plunge days from the Nov. 3 election with the presidency and their Senate majority at stake.

Only one Republican — Sen. Susan Collins, who is in a tight reelection fight in Maine — voted against the nominee, not over any direct assessment of Barrett. Rather, Collins said, “I do not think it is fair nor consistent to have a Senate confirmation vote prior to the election.”

Trump and his Republican allies had hoped for a campaign boost, in much the way Trump generated excitement among conservatives and evangelical Christians in 2016 over a court vacancy. That year, McConnell refused to allow the Senate to consider then-President Barack Obama’s choice to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, arguing the new president should decide.

Most other Republicans facing tough races embraced the nominee who clerked for the late Scalia to bolster their standing with conservatives. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said in a speech Monday that Barrett will “go down in history as one of the great justices.”

But it’s not clear the extraordinary effort to install the new justice over such opposition in a heated election year will pay political rewards to the GOP.

Demonstrations for and against the nominee have been more muted at the Capitol under coronavirus restrictions.

Democrats were unified against Barrett. While two Democratic senators voted to confirm Barrett in 2017 after Trump nominated the Notre Dame Law School professor to the appellate court, none voted to confirm her to the high court.

In a display of party priorities, California Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, returned to Washington from the campaign trail to join colleagues with a no vote.

No other Supreme Court justice has been confirmed on a recorded vote with no support from the minority party in at least 150 years, according to information provided by the Senate Historical Office.

The leader of the opposition in Zanzibar has been arrested and three people killed, his party said Tuesday as chaos erupted on the semi-autonomous archipelago ahead of Tanzania’s election.

Opposition leader Seif Sharif Hamad, who is taking his sixth shot at the top office, was hauled away by police as he arrived at a polling station in Garagara neighbourhood to try and cast his ballot on a day of early voting set aside mainly for security forces.
His opposition ACT-Wazalendo (Alliance for Change and Transparency) party wrote on Twitter that Hamad “has been arrested”, a day before presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Zanzibar and on the Tanzanian mainland.
Shortly before his arrest, police fired teargas and live rounds, and brutally beat a young man around the Mtupepo primary school where the polling station is located in an opposition stronghold, an AFP reporter saw.
The opposition believes the special day of early voting for security forces is a ploy to steal the election on an island with a history of contested polls, and urged supporters to go out and vote on the same day.
Violence erupted Monday night on Pemba, an opposition bastion, as the army distributed ballots which opposition supporters believed were pre-marked.
“Verified reports from Pemba in Zanzibar indicate that three citizens have been shot dead by the police using live ammunition,” read a statement from ACT-Wazalendo on Tuesday.
The party named the three dead, as well as nine who were injured.
“We call upon the regional and international community to persuade the Tanzanian and Zanzibar governments to allow a free and fair election to run free of violence and intimidation over the next two days.”
Zanzibar Police Commissioner Mohamed Hassan Haji refused to comment on the deaths or Hamad’s arrest.
There was a heavy presence of police and soldiers across the islands.
In Garagara riot police ran into alleyways firing teargas and live rounds.
A group of around six officers mercilessly beat a young man with their guns and batons before loading him into the back of their car.
Journalists were chased away from the scene.
Sectarian and political tensions in Zanzibar — with a cosmopolitan population of Arabs, Asians and Africans — are more marked than on the mainland.
The archipelago joined with then-Tanganyika to form Tanzania in 1964, and Tanzania’s ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party has been in power ever since.
“The colonisers (mainland) have oppressed us enough, so take this election very seriously … we are ready to die for Zanzibar,” the 77-year-old Hamad told his final campaign rally on Sunday.
Hamad believes every vote has been stolen from him since the introduction of multiparty democracy in 1995, and foreign observers have often agreed.
In January 2001, at least 30 people were killed in clashes between police and opposition supporters after a disputed election.
Polls in 2005 were also marred by clashes.
A political deal allowing for more power-sharing led to peaceful elections in 2010, but divisions quickly returned and in 2015, the head of the electoral commission cancelled the vote outright.
In 2016, the opposition boycotted the re-run and the CCM was declared the victor.
Twitter was down across the country with President John Magufuli and the mainland’s opposition party Chadema leader, Tundu Lissu due to wrap up their campaigns on Tuesday.