Africa-Press – Malawi. There comes a time when silence becomes complicity — and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has once again chosen to be complicit.
Today, as millions of Tanzanians troop to the polls, the spectacle unfolding is not an election — it is a coronation, choreographed and sealed long before the first ballot was cast. Yet, SADC — that regional body supposedly tasked with safeguarding democracy, peace, and stability — has chosen to clap politely from the sidelines, issuing hollow statements about “peaceful elections” while democracy is being strangled in plain sight.
President Arthur Peter Mutharika, as Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, has urged Tanzanians to “vote in large numbers” and “exercise their democratic right.” Noble words, but tragically detached from the truth. What democratic right is there to exercise when the leading opposition parties have been barred, when candidates are disqualified on flimsy grounds, and when dissenting voices are silenced through intimidation and abduction?
Tanzania’s 2025 general elections are not free, not fair, and not credible. They are a carefully scripted show designed to give legitimacy to President Samia Suluhu Hassan and her ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which has ruled uninterrupted since 1977. The disqualification of CHADEMA’s Tundu Lissu and ACT-Wazalendo’s Luhaga Mpina — both strong opposition contenders — stripped these elections of any semblance of competition. What remains is a hollow ritual masquerading as democracy.
And where is SADC in all this?
Deploying “observation missions” led by political retirees who will, as always, issue glowing reports about “peaceful and orderly voting.” Peaceful, yes — because fear has pacified the people. Orderly, yes — because dissent has been outlawed. But democratic? Absolutely not.
This is the hypocrisy that has come to define regional bodies in Africa. They rush to endorse elections that would make even the most cynical dictators blush — provided no one throws stones and polling stations open on time. They confuse calm for consent, and silence for satisfaction.
The SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections spell out the standards clearly: inclusivity, fairness, transparency, and a level playing field. Tanzania’s election fails on every count. Yet, instead of calling it out, SADC prefers the comfort of diplomatic politeness, the cowardice of neutrality, and the convenience of collective amnesia.
When the regional bloc’s observer missions declare this election “credible,” they will not just be whitewashing an autocratic process — they will be betraying the very ideals they claim to uphold. They will be telling Africa that democracy is optional, that repression is tolerable, and that so long as there are no riots, everything is fine.
But everything is not fine. Opposition leaders are in exile or in court on trumped-up charges. Critics are disappearing. Civil liberties are shrinking. Tanzania, once a proud beacon of African liberation under Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, is now slipping deeper into the shadows of one-party dominance.
SADC’s deafening silence makes it complicit in this decay. It shows a regional system more invested in protecting incumbents than defending democracy. It has become a club of governments watching over each other’s survival — not a community of nations safeguarding people’s rights.
If SADC cannot call out Tanzania’s farcical election for what it is, then what moral authority does it have to lecture anyone about democracy? What relevance does it have as a referee when it keeps blessing matches rigged before kickoff?
Africa deserves better. Tanzania deserves better. And SADC must decide whether it wants to remain a spectator in the slow funeral of regional democracy — or rediscover its voice as a guardian of the people’s will.
Because at this rate, history will remember not only those who rigged elections — but also those who watched in silence and called it peace.
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