Dar es Salaam (AFP) - Tanzania’s main opposition party demanded Monday the release of its top leaders who were detained in a mass roundup ahead of a banned youth day rally, a move condemned by rights activists as “troubling”.

Those arrested include Chadema party chairman Freeman Mbowe and his deputy Tundu Lissu – both former presidential candidates – as well as several other top leaders, according to party officials.

They said the whereabouts of those detained was unknown and that they had information they may have been beaten.

Rights groups and opponents of the government voiced fears the police action could signal a return to the oppressive policies of late president John Magufuli as the country gears up for elections due late next year.

The arrests came despite his successor Samia Suluhu Hassan vowing a return to “competitive politics” and easing some restrictions on the opposition and the media, including the January 2023 lifting of a six-year ban on opposition gatherings.

Party officials said Mbowe, 62, was arrested on Monday at the airport in the southwestern city of Mbeya, the day after several other leaders including Lissu were detained.

Chadema’s director of communication and foreign affairs John Mrema also told AFP that around 500 youth supporters had been rounded up by police as they were making their way to Mbeya and were being escorted back home.

“We cannot allow this Magufuli style to continue in our country,” Chadema’s deputy secretary general for the Tanzanian mainland, Benson Kigaila, told a press conference.

- ‘Repressive conditions’ -

Kigaila said five journalists had also been arrested and called for the release of all those detained.

“We want to know the whereabouts of our party leaders who were arrested by the police,” he said, adding that the party had information that some had been beaten.

Tanzania’s 2025 presidential and parliamentary elections will be the first since the death of Magufuli, who was nicknamed the “Bulldozer” for his authoritarian policies.

Magufuli’s presidency from 2015 to 2021 was marked by crackdowns on the press, freedom of speech and political opposition.

Chadema’s youth wing had said about 10,000 youngsters had been expected to meet in Mbeya to mark International Youth Day under the slogan “Take charge of your future”.

But in announcing the ban on the event, police had accused the party of planning violent demonstrations, and made reference to widespread anti-government protests in neighbouring Kenya, led largely by young activists.

Global rights group Amnesty International urged Tanzania to “halt the mass arrests and arbitrary detention of government critics”.

“The Tanzanian authorities must urgently release all of those detained or charge them with a recognisable criminal offence, in line with international standards,” it said in a statement.

Oryem Nyeko, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “It’s troubling because it’s very similar to the mass opposition arrests we saw when Magufuli was president.”

He told AFP: “Tanzania shouldn’t be going back in that direction, especially in the period leading up to elections.”

Another opposition party, ACT Wazalendo, said the arrests represented a threat to multi-party democracy in Tanzania, a country of 62 million.

“These actions reignite fears of a swift return to repressive conditions that hinder opposition political parties from freely carrying out their activities,” it said in a statement.

- ‘Let’s raise our voices’ -

Tanzania’s Legal and Human Rights Centre also denounced the police’s actions, noting that the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party and ACT Wazalendo had been able to hold youth day rallies at the weekend without any issues.

Lissu, a fierce CCM critic who has been arrested multiple times in the past, returned to Tanzania soon after Hassan lifted the ban on opposition rallies in 2023.

The 56-year-old had spent the previous five years largely in exile in Belgium following a 2017 assassination attempt which saw him shot 16 times.

He had previously returned only briefly to run for the presidency in 2020.

In July 2021, Mbowe was arrested along with several other Chadema leaders just hours before the party was to hold a public forum to demand constitutional reforms.

He was freed the following March after prosecutors dropped terrorism charges against him.

Announcing the ban on Sunday, Awadh Haji, Tanzania’s police chief in charge of operations and training, said the force had “clear indications that their aim is not to celebrate the International Youth Day but to initiate and engage in violence”.

But Lissu was defiant in a post on X before his arrest on Sunday.

“This is not a time to stay silent, be afraid, or just talk. It’s a time to stand up and be counted. Let’s raise our voices with all our strength!”