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Chairman, CHADEMA
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Tundu Antiphas Mughwai Lissu (born 1968) is a Tanzanian lawyer, fierce human rights defender, and the Chairman of CHADEMA, the country's primary opposition party. In a seismic political shift in January 2025, Lissu defeated the long-serving Freeman Mbowe in internal party elections to take the helm of CHADEMA. Renowned globally for surviving a politically motivated assassination attempt in 2017—where he was shot 16 times in Dodoma—he spent years in exile in Belgium before returning in 2023 under President Samia's short-lived amnesty. As Chairman, Lissu adopted an uncompromising, confrontational approach against the CCM establishment. As the 2025 general elections approached, his massive rallies terrified the ruling party. In April 2025, the government launched a brutal crackdown; Lissu was arrested in Mbinga, transported over 1,000 kilometers in the dead of night, and charged with treason (a non-bailable offense carrying the death penalty). Consequently, CHADEMA was barred from the October 2025 elections. Today, he remains Tanzania's most famous political prisoner, a symbol of resistance against democratic erosion.
Elected Chairman of CHADEMA in January 2025, succeeding Freeman Mbowe after 21 years
Former President of the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS), using the bar association to challenge state overreach
Survived a brazen assassination attempt in 2017 (shot 16 times) and became a global symbol of Tanzanian democratic resistance
Currently detained without bail on highly contentious treason charges (since April 2025) designed to prevent him from contesting the presidency
His aggressive takeover of the CHADEMA chairmanship in 2025 created internal party friction with loyalists of the former chairman, Freeman Mbowe
Arrested over six times by the Magufuli administration for 'sedition' and 'insulting the president'
Presidential candidate for CHADEMA in the disputed 2020 elections