Tanzania President Lifts Six-year Ban on Political Rallies

By Nuzulack Dausen

TANZANIA'S PRESIDENTSamia Suluhu

Hassan lifted a ban on political rallies on Tuesday, January 3rd, six-and-a-half years after her predecessor John Magufuli imposed the measure which caused frequent run-ins between opposition leaders and police.

Under the policy, which came into force in 2016, elected politicians were allowed to conduct rallies in their constituencies but other political rallies or protests were banned.

"I am here to declare that the ban on political rallies has been lifted. It is the right of political parties to hold rallies but we all have responsibilities," Hassan told leaders of Tanzania's 19 registered political parties during a meeting at her office in the capital Dar es Salaam.

"Just inform us as the laws require. Security organs will evaluate your requests. If there is any threat, they won't allow you, but for the step we are in right now, they will definitely allow you to conduct your rallies."

Hassan, who came to office after Magufuli died in March 2021, said her decision to lift the ban was part of her strategy of Reconciliation, Resilience, institutions, banks and businesses registered to attend the event, and played an unusually outsized but background role in the lead-up to COP15.

A hot debate over what businesses should disclose about their reliance on natural systems, and impacts on them, entered the last days of the talks. Negotiators agreed early on that countries should “ensure” their companies be transparent with regulators, investors and the public, but nations were divided over whether to make this requirement mandatory or not. The word “mandatory” was finally erased from the document.

Mandatory reporting was championed by France in pre-negotiations before the Montreal event. “An https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/tanzaniapresident-lifts-six-year-ban-on-political-rallies/arAA15V2Ef agreement with 196 parties implies compromises and things that we do not have completely,” said France’s minister for the ecology transition, Christophe Bechu. “What was essential [is] we have this base now.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/ articles/2022-12-19/cop15-adopts-biodiversityplan-to-protect-30-of-land-and-water-by-2030

Reforms and Rebuilding the nation, dubbed 4Rs.

She has lifted a ban on four newspapers and during a visit to Brussels last year she met Tundu Lissu, an exiled opposition leader.

Opposition parties and civil rights groups had criticised Magufuli's ban, which resulted in frequent arrests of political figures and clashes between their supporters and police.

Freeman Mbowe, the head of Tanzania's leading opposition party CHADEMA, was arrested in July 2021. He was charged with terrorism but prosecutors dropped the case in March 2022 and he met Hassan hours after his release.

Countries have also agreed to fair and equitable benefit-sharing from the utilization of digital sequence information on genetic resources –which involves using genes in living organisms to create new products.

Image credit: UN Biodiversity