On Election Day, in Ngorongoro ward of Ngorongoro district, police and Ngorongoro Conservation Area rangers opened fire shooting innocent, unarmed voters who were standing up for democracy, trying to stop election fraud. 23-year old Salula Ngorisiolo was killed. Then the injured victims were arrested, and so was the CHADEMA ward councillor candidate, and the former CCM councillor (who was on the side of justice), and they were locked up illegally for a week and are now facing charges, while the murderers and vote riggers walk free.
In this blog post:
Stolen elections
in Tanzania
Murder and
illegal arrests in Ngorongoro
This blog is
about “investors” that threaten land rights in Loliondo and the local police
state at their service, a police state that was terrifying long before the
whole of Tanzania turned into something similar, and it’s about the current
genocidal Multiple Land Use Model review proposal. Though this particular post
is about a not entirely unrelated heinous crime. There are still some information
gaps, but I can’t wait longer to publish this.
Stolen elections in
Tanzania
The rigging of the Tanzanian
election had been almost five years in the making. Soon after having been sworn
in, Magufuli banned all political activities by the opposition outside the
election campaign, except for internal meetings - but the police has disrupted
those too claiming unlawful assembly - while CCM could continue any activities freely.
In early 2016, Magufuli announced that by the 2020 elections, all political
opposition would be dead, and those who had any doubt, now know that he meant
it. Live parliamentary debates were barred, and media were censored. Over a
dozen opposition MPs have been imprisoned for the offence of “sedition”. Some
lucky opposition members have been kidnapped, beaten, and dropped in some place
far from their home, while some unlucky ones have disappeared or been found
dead.
A
law (the Political Parties Amendment Act) was on 22nd February 2019 passed to
restrict the ability of political parties to collaborate or make coalitions,
and on 18th September 2020 a new law was passed (Political Parties Elections
Broadcasts Code) restricting broadcasting or discussion of opinion polls, and
election results.
On 27th July 2020,
former Singida East MP Tundu Lissu, who was stripped of his parliamentary seat
for non-attendance, returned home after three years of surgery and recovery in
Kenya and Belgium. On 7th September 2017 – following repeated illegal arrests
and malicious prosecution – Lissu was hit by 16 bullets fired by unknown people
while in his car inside the heavily guarded parliamentary housing compound. If
there ever were any kind of investigation into this assassination attempt, and
there probably wasn’t, it never reached anywhere. Lissu was soon after his
return elected as CHADEMA’s presidential candidate and went on a whirlwind tour
of Tanzania with multitudinous election rallies electrifying the attendants
with his courage, intelligence, and good nature – in stark contrast to Magufuli
- after five years of growing fear everywhere.
Lissu is a friend of Ngorongoro.
Unfortunately, District Executive Directors (DEDs), who are appointed directly by the president, are the returning officers of the National Electoral Commission, and have without reason disqualified CHADEMA and ACT candidates, so that the CCM candidates could “contest” unopposed for 28 parliamentary seats, while others lost much campaign time on appealing. The police didn’t hide that they were working for CCM and kept harassing, arresting and beating campaigning opposition politicians, tear gassing opposition supporters, and blocking the movement of opposition campaigns. Lissu was so obviously popular that the National Electoral Commission arbitrarily banned him from campaigning for 7 days.
On 27th October, many
people in Ngorongoro and all over Tanzania started having problems accessing
social media, and sending text messages mentioning “Tundu Lissu”. In
Ololosokwan there were those who could only use the Kenyan Safaricom. Some
Tanzanians learned to use VPN, while others had problems with throttled social
media for over a week. Foreign journalists weren’t allowed in Tanzania, unless accompanied
by authorities, and Tanzanian media were already very deep into self-censorship.
Independent electoral observers had not been invited.
On Pemba, in Zanzibar – where CCM
are said to have stolen every election since the introduction of the multi-party
system - on 27th October at least 13 voters were killed by security organs, and there were reports of widespread beatings and rape. Horrible videos
of abuse keep surfacing as internet services return. The violence has continued
on Zanzibar, and basically all ACT Wazalendo top politicians have been arrested
and some of them tortured. The ACT campaign manager in Zanzibar, Husna Mohammed
Abdalla, was missing without a trace for almost a week and then released on
bail with severe torture injuries. ACT’s deputy secretary general Nassor Mazrui
has been detained without charges and without access to a lawyer for over twelve
days now. He was severely beaten by security forces and not seen since. The
same has happened to a long list of opposition politicians and supporters.
 |
Mauwa Mohammed Mussa, ACT MP candidate for Shaurimoyo, was tortured by security forces using wire, hammer and clubs. |
 | ||
Ismail Jussa, ACT Wazalendo, was tortured by the police while arrested and then for several days prevented from going to Nairobi for surgery.
|
There has since the
introduction of multi-party elections in Tanzania always been election fraud, if
contesting you’ve always needed people that can guard your votes from being
stolen, but on Election Day 28th October 2020, it was soon clear
that CCM were this time not even trying to keep up any pretence of credible
elections. Opposition politicians kept being arrested, opposition polling
agents blocked from polling stations, and there were several filmed reports of
voters intercepting police and others with boxes, backpacks or baskets filled
with pre-marked ballot papers. There were killings in other areas on
the mainland as well, not only in Ngorongoro. The reporting of the violent
incidences were limited by the throttling of the internet
Unsurprisingly, the “election
results” showed a landslide victory for Magufuli and CCM candidates basically
everywhere, and not least in opposition strongholds. Any fake credibility had
already been done away with.
From the national level to the
most local level, opposition candidates and stalwarts have been subjected to arbitrary
detention, torture and disappearance. Those in detention has been accused of economic
crimes, terrorism, armed robbery among many trumped up charges. Two presidential
candidates - Tundu Lissu and Maalim Seif (Zanzibar) - have been arrested as
part of the systematic hunting of the opposition. Godbless Lema, former MP for
Arusha Urban has fled to Kenya and is seeking asylum, and Tunda Lissu has taken
refuge at the residence of the German ambassador.
The harshest international
condemnation and sanctions are needed. Now.
Murder and
illegal arrests in Ngorongoro
On Election Day, at the
Oloirobi polling station in Ngorongoro ward, opposition polling agents weren’t
allowed in, and around 10am a vehicle belonging to a CCM member named Sammi
arrived with this Sammi, a CCM polling agent named Oltunyo Oloitai and boxes full
of pre-marked ballots. Opposition polling agents and voters refused to let this
happen, and Sammi and Oltunyo were taken away by the police. No action was
however taken against them and they were soon seen out and about again. Such boxes,
bags and baskets were intercepted all over Tanzania, and reportedly they
occurred in other areas of Ngorongoro as well, but it seems like, in the
district, only in Oloirobi were the polling agents and voters brave enough to
try to stop it. Though in Endulen, the night before the election, the
opposition managed to stop CCM’s plan for three fake polling stations.
Around noon there was a second
attempt at rigging. Then it was “discovered” that the polling agents didn’t
have identification from the returning officer, DED Siumbu. Initially, no party
had their agents identified. Only in the middle of the confrontation, the
assistant returning officer availed identification letters to CCM polling
agents alone.
 |
| DED Raphael Siumbu, to the right. Presenting MP Olenasha with his certificate of appointment. |
When the opposition polling
agents and the voters resisted the removal of the polling agents, the police and
the NCAA rangers task force fired teargas and live bullets at the innocent,
unarmed civilians. This heinous crime claimed one person's life and four other
people were wounded.
Salula
Ngorisiolo
was killed. He was 23-years-old. Leepalai
Kashiro, who was shot in the stomach, was taken to hospital, while the
injured Meshuko Lesitik, Neepai Olorru, and Kone Leyan were taken into police
custody.
After the murder, the voting
was suspended, and then followed hunting and arrests of opposition candidates
and cadres. CHADEMA councillor candidate for Ngorongoro ward Tubulu Nebasi, who
hadn’t even been at the polling station in Oloirobi, former CCM councillor
Daniel Orkery, and the three injured men not in hospital, were detained by the
police. Tubulu’s campaign had raised enthusiasm
and a CHADEMA victory in Ngorongoro ward seemed quite probable indeed. The
former CCM councillor was supporting Tubulu.
It was hard to get exact information,
most people seemed very passive. A friend of mine said that people in
Ngorongoro have been oppressed for too long and become like cold ashes. Though
apparently relatives weren’t allowed to see those illegally arrested, nobody
knew what they were accused of, or even if they were being held at Ngorongoro
police station, or had been taken to Loliondo. According to the law they should
have been either taken to court or granted bail after 24 hours. Though obviously,
they should never have been arrested, since they were the victims of the terrible
crime committed by the police, the rangers, DED Siumbu, the candidates benefitting
from the fraud, and ultimately Magufuli himself (I will no longer call him
president).
Reportedly, the aim of the
illegal arrest was to force Tubulu Nebasi to recognise the election result.
Advocate Joseph Oleshangay
prepared an application to the court, and on 3rd November a lawyer from Legal
and Human Rights Centre went to Loliondo.
On 4th November, the illegally
arrested defenders of democracy were taken to court in Loliondo and released on
bail. They must present themselves in court again on 25th November. They are
accused of:
-Attacking the polling
station.
-Beating the election
administrators at the said polling station.
-Beating up the rangers at the
polling station.
It’s very hard to get updates,
but reportedly Leepalai Kashiro is still in hospital.
Salula Ngorisiolo will never
be brought back to life. The murderers, and those ordering them, must be taken
to court, but so far no action at all has been taken against them. The elections
can still be re-run without rigging and violence (a very unrealistic wish
according to everyone) even if the five years of pre-rigging and violence can’t
be erased.
Susanna Nordlund
No comments:
Post a Comment