President Samia Suluhu Hassan, a soft-spoken politician who unexpectedly found herself as the first woman to lead Tanzania, triumphed in the east African nation’s election after barring opponents and brutally crushing protests.Hassan won 98 percent of the vote, according to the electoral commission, but the election sparked widespread protests and a government crackdown in which the opposition says hundreds have been killed. Hassan, 65, took no chances in the run-up to the October 29 polls, with the main opposition candidates jailed or barred from running and the opposition alleging abductions and murders targeting her critics.A former office clerk and development worker, Hassan began her political career in 2000 in her native Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous archipelago.She rose through the ranks of the ruling Revolution Party (Chama Cha Mapinduzi: CCM), and was then picked by John Magufuli as his running mate for the 2015 election. The pair were re-elected in 2020 in a vote which independent observers said was marred by irregularities.Few outside Tanzania had heard of Hassan until March 2021, when she appeared on national television wearing a black headscarf to announce that Magufuli had died at 61 following a short illness. – ‘A lot of paranoia’ -Hassan’s soft, slow delivery marked a sharp change from the thundering rhetoric of her predecessor. At first, she also seemed to break with his authoritarian tendencies, reversing a ban on opposition rallies and media.But hopes of a new dawn for Tanzanian democracy soon vanished, as she oversaw repression considered even worse than the Magufuli era.A former adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said “she sees this as necessary to cement her rule in a patriarchal society”. Magufuli, a mainland Christian nicknamed “the Bulldozer”, had little time for a Muslim woman from Zanzibar, said the former adviser. “She was nowhere near the centre of power. She was just a box-tick,” they added.Analysts say Hassan faced huge pressure from powerful Magufuli allies within the party, who dominated intelligence and other critical areas, and tried to block her accession in 2021.”She knew that the government she inherited was deeply against her and deeply misogynist… so she couldn’t trust anyone. There was a lot of paranoia,” said the former adviser.That paranoia drove Hassan to seek a resounding mandate this year, analysts say, removing any sign of dissent within the party and beyond. Much public anger has been directed at Hassan’s son, Abdul Halim Hafidh Ameir, accused of overseeing the pre-election crackdown.- ‘Getting things done’ -Hassan was born on January 27, 1960 in Zanzibar, a former hub for the slave and spice trade in the Indian Ocean. Still ruled by a Muslim sultan, Zanzibar did not merge formally with mainland Tanzania for another four years.Her father was a school teacher and mother a housewife. Hassan has said publicly that her school results were poor, and she took a clerkship in a government office at 17 before entering higher education.Hassan became a development officer in the Zanzibar government and later a project manager for the UN’s World Food Programme.In 2000, she entered Zanzibar’s House of Representatives and served as a local government minister — first for youth employment, women and children and then for tourism and trade investment.In 2010, she was elected to the National Assembly on mainland Tanzania. Then-president Jakaya Kikwete appointed her minister of state for union affairs.”I may look polite, and do not shout when speaking, but the most important thing is that everyone understands what I say and things get done as I say,” Hassan said in a speech in 2020.
