The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) will tomorrow, Friday, March 6, 2026 deliver its long-awaited judgment on the legitimacy of Tanzania’s 2020 elections.
It is 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 others. 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:
I. detention of candidates without cause;
II. arbitrary suspension of the campaigns of leading opposition candidates;
III. arbitrary disqualification of numerous candidates for parliament and district councils;
IV. appointment of a ruling party cadre to serve as director of the National Election Commission;
V. barring the courts from considering challenges to the presidential election after the Electoral Commission had declared a winner;
VI. violence directed at opposition candidates and their supporters, with particular violations of dignity committed against women candidates;
VII. vote-buying;
VIII. vote harvesting from un-gazetted polling stations;
IX. ballot-stuffing;
X. irregular counting of votes;
XI. 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
XII. throttling and suspension of telecommunication services, including cellular and internet services and social media platforms.
Mr. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, one of the Applicants’ counsels said that “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 also 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 later, 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 February 28, 2025, the 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 June 20, 2025, the Court stated that it would issue its judgment on June 26, 2025. Five days later, after becoming aware of the notice of judgment, Tanzania requested the Court to reopen the pleadings and grant it an extension of time to respond. On July 10, 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 August 5, 2025, the Court nonetheless decided to allow Tanzania to file its submissions, to which the Applicants responded, and it finally closed the pleadings for the second time on September 25,2025.
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 February 17, 2021 and, accordingly, the African Court struck his name from the Application.
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