Hassan expected to retain Tanzania’s presidency as key opponents barred

Tanzanians went to the polls on Wednesday in an election that President Samia Suluhu Hassan is expected to win after candidates from the two leading opposition parties were barred from standing.

In addition to the presidential election, voters will choose members of the country’s 400-seat parliament and a president and lawmakers in the semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago.

Tanzania’s presidential vote is being held without the leading opposition party, CHADEMA, whose leader Tundu Lissu is on trial for treason, charges he denies. The electoral commission disqualified CHADEMA in April after it refused to sign an electoral code of conduct.

The commission also disqualified Luhaga Mpina, the candidate for the second largest opposition party, ACT-Wazalendo, after an objection from the Attorney General, leaving only candidates from minor parties taking on Hassan.

Hassan’s CCM, whose predecessor party led the struggle for independence for mainland Tanzania in the 1950s, has dominated national politics since its founding