The difficulty of life resulting from the rise in the cost of living in parallel with the changes in the electoral laws has attracted the protests of the main opposition party in Tanzania, Chadema.
The demonstration started today in Dar es Salaam, where Chadema had three main points while explaining that it will continue with demonstrations in various parts of Tanzania.
The main points were asking for a new constitution, changes in election laws and the rise in the cost of living.
However, the protest which had started in two different places namely Buguruni and Mbezi finally ended at the offices of the United Nations (UN) located in the Ubungo area where the party submitted a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations explaining that the letter carries everything they are going through Tanzanians.
Chadema chairman, Freeman Mbowe said it was a peaceful protest and will continue in other regions until changes occur.
Mbowe said, “We have held large and long demonstrations without anyone being hurt, and that is Chadema’s character. When the police understand our arguments, we have no quarrel with anyone. We will continue to protest in different ways and regions until our colleagues understand what we are standing for.”
For his part, the Police Commander of the Special Zone of Dar es Salaam, Muliro said that the army has not seen any defects unless they make a security assessment of the protest.
“We the police force, our participation was to ensure that illegal acts do not take place. Our goal was to make sure everything was safe. We will evaluate the protest.”
Cost of living
Despite some of the party’s supporters insisting on the election bills wanting amendments, while others wanted a new Constitution. Many cried that the cost of living is high.
The marchers claim that important products have been available at a high cost, including sugar and oil. They have also expressed difficulty with the uncertain availability of electricity.
Among the supporters of the party, Hamed Msuya who is a resident of Dar es Salaam said, “the cost of living is high, sugar is available with difficulty and at a high cost, today sugar is 5500 shillings while recently it was 2800 shillings.
It is clear that the costs are high, the electricity is not reliable, but everything is denied by poor management, so we want to change the election laws so that we can choose leaders who can solve these challenges.
Mtongori Juma 