Tanzania opposition rallies back but this doesn't mean democratic reform is coming

Chadema Chairman Freeman Mbowe (centre) arrives at Kisutu Magistrate Court in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on March 10, 2020. [File, Reuters]

In Tanzania, the political rally is back. Chadema, Tanzania's leading opposition party, held mass rallies outside the official election campaign for the first time in six and a half years on January 21, 2023.

It could do so because three weeks earlier, President Samia Suluhu lifted the ban on public rallies. Assassination-attempt survivor and opposition politician Tundu Lissu returned to Tanzania on January 25 to take part in them.