MEDIA ADVISORY,
March 4, 2026, Arusha, Tanzania
Press contacts:
- Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, counsel of Applicants, +234 805 502 7273 (English)
- Ibrahima Kane, counsel of Applicants, +221 77 737 19 19 (French)
- Fulgence Massawe, +255 784 328 988 (Kiswahili)
AFRICA’S TOP HUMAN RIGHTS COURT TO RULE ON LEGITIMACY OF TANZANIA’S ELECTIONS.
On Friday, 6th March, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) will issue its long-awaited judgment in a highly significant case in which Tanzanian citizens, including opposition political party leaders, candidates and voters, provided evidence that the Government of Tanzania committed acts in the context of the 2020 general elections that violated their basic civil and political rights.
Former Vice-President of Zanzibar and founder of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF), Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad, began the case in November 2020 to challenge gross and massive violations of election laws by the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Party in the 2020 presidential elections. Following his death in February 2021, the Court substituted him with Ado Shaibu, Secretary-General of the ACT Wazalendo party.
The African Court will begin reading decisions at 10:00 am EAT. The reading of the decisions will be livestreamed in English with simultaneous Swahili and French translations, and can be followed here:
English: https://www.youtube.com/@AfricanCourtEnglishChannel/live
French: https://www.youtube.com/@courafricaine/live
Kiswahili: https://www.youtube.com/@MahakamaYaAfrika/live
The African Court is a continental judicial body established by African States to promote and protect human rights across the continent. Created under the auspices of the African Union (AU), the Court derives its mandate from the collective commitment of its Member States. To date, 34 States have accepted the Court’s jurisdiction, including Tanzania. The African Court is based in Arusha, Tanzania, and thus Tanzania has a particularly compelling reputational reason for respecting the African Court’s rulings. Nonetheless, Tanzania has been slow to comply with other Court’s rulings, ordering the Government to reform its electoral laws and Constitution.
In the Shaibu case, the Applicants have asked the African Court to address the totality of the violations committed by the Government in connection with the 2020 elections, including the:
- detention of candidates without cause;
- arbitrary suspension of the campaigns of leading opposition candidates;
- arbitrary disqualification of numerous candidates for parliament and district councils;
- appointment of a ruling party cadre to serve as director of the National Election Commission;
- barring the courts from considering challenges to the presidential election after the Electoral Commission had declared a winner;
- violence directed at opposition candidates and their supporters, with particular violations of dignity committed against women candidates;
- vote-buying;
- vote harvesting from un-gazetted polling stations;
- ballot-stuffing;
- irregular counting of votes;
- revocation of the licence of publications and suspension of radio and TV stations that were independent or did not promote the positions of the ruling party; and
- throttling and suspension of telecommunication services, including cellular and internet services and social media platforms.
WHY THIS JUDGMENT MATTERS
Mr. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, one of the Applicants’ counsels’ states:
“The case was filed more than five years ago, in November 2020. The Court granted the Government of Tanzania extension after extension designed deliberately to delay judgment until after the elections of 29/10/2025. Had the Court issued its judgment before last year’s elections, it could have helped motivate Tanzania’s ruling party to hold elections that met minimum standards of fairness, and thereby to have prevented the violence and general impunity that denied those elections and their outcome of any legitimacy.”
The judgment could also have implications for the other pending matters before the African Court concerning electoral reforms, as well as allegations of restrictions affecting opposition politicians under the administration of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, the legality of which remains under judicial consideration.
It can be hoped that, if the African Court states clearly what the Tanzanian Government is required to do in order to comply with the norms governing elections in the member states of the AU, it will provide significant guardrails for future elections in Africa, starting with Kenya’s and Nigeria’s presidential elections scheduled for 2027.
BACKGROUND
The Shaibu case, was filed at the African Court on 20/11/2020 and served on the Government of Tanzania on 02/05/2021. Tanzania was given 30 days in which to file its Response. Finally, 90 days late, Tanzania filed a response, a general denial without evidence. Thereafter, the Applicants filed a reply and a request for hearing witnesses (which was denied). The Applicants further filed additional evidence through affidavits of witnesses, and a comprehensive brief setting forth the law and facts in support of their claims. On 28/02/2025, the African Court granted the application of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Centre and the Institute for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa to submit a brief to the Court as amici curiae (friends of the court), given their expertise and experience in litigating electoral disputes. On 20/6/2025, the African Court stated that it would issue its judgment on 26/6/2025. Five days later, after becoming aware of the notice of judgment, Tanzania requested the African Court to reopen the pleadings and grant it an extension of time to respond. On 10/7/2025, the Applicants filed observations strenuously opposing the request given Tanzania’s extensive delays up to that point, the speciousness of its arguments, and the imminence of elections. On 5/8/2025, the African Court nonetheless decided to allow Tanzania to file its submissions, to which the Applicants responded, and the African Court finally closed the pleadings for the second time on 25/9/2025. Six months later, following the October 2025 elections, an electoral process that again gave rise to reports of violence attributed to state agents and allegations of serious departures from the very African electoral standards at issue in this case concerning the 2020 elections, the African Court is now poised to deliver its judgment.
The Applicants are all citizens of Tanzania: Ado Shaibu, the Secretary-General of the political party Alliance for Change and Transparency (“ACT”) Wazalendo, one of the most prominent opposition political parties; two candidates, one for the Parliament and one for the House of Representatives; and three registered voters. When the Application was filed, there was a seventh applicant, Mr. Seif Sharif Hamad, the presidential candidate for ACT Wazalendo. He passed away on 17/02/2021 and, accordingly, the African Court struck his name from the Application.
For more information about the case, please see https://www.african-court.org/cpmt/details- case/0462020 and https://www.african-court.org/cpmt/details-case/0402020.