Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has pledged that her administration will uphold internationally accepted standards of democracy in the country’s general election this year.
In her 27-minute New Year’s address broadcast live on State television, President Hassan described 2025 as a “special year” (mwaka maalum) for Tanzania to demonstrate progress in instilling democratic principles in politics and governance.
“My call is to all citizens and election stakeholders to ensure Tanzania maintains its status as a country with a democracy that is built on the foundations of freedom and justice,” she said.
The October general elections will be held for the presidencies of Tanzania and Zanzibar, as well as for seats in the Union Parliament and the Zanzibar House of Representatives.
President Hassan will be seeking the electorate’s mandate to govern the country for another five years until 2030. She inherited the seat in March 2021 following the death of John Magufuli, whom she had deputised.
She pledged her government’s commitment to continue spreading her 4Rs philosophy (reconciliation, resilience, reforms and rebuilding) by, among other things, fostering media freedom, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly as the election approaches.
On the economic front, the President said the government’s main priority would be to speed up ongoing key infrastructural development projects to their completion or near-completion in 2025.
The projects include the standard gauge railway across the Central Corridor, a ring road network for the administrative capital Dodoma, and the third and fourth phases of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project designed to ease transport congestion in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
The Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project is on track to be fully operational from February, she said, potentially ending Tanzania’s difficulties in securing reliable round-the-clock electricity, while freight services will be launched on the SGR with the aim of transporting up to one million tonnes of cargo annually.
These developments are expected to boost domestic industrial growth and trade with landlocked neighbours in the long term, she said.
The President also touched on her own moves to promote economic diplomacy over the past year, saying her official visits to 16 countries in 2024 had yielded significant dividends in terms of new bilateral cooperation agreements in areas such as agriculture, trade and investment.
She specifically mentioned her visits to China to find new markets for Tanzanian food products, and to South Korea to secure concessional loans for several infrastructure and social welfare projects in Zanzibar.
