Pemba Island, the Zanzibar Opposition Heartland, From the 2001 Killings to the 2025 Election Crackdown

On 18 September 2026 Othman Masoud Othman of the opposition party ACT-Wazalendo became Zanzibar's First Vice-President again, nearly a year after an election his party said was stolen. His return restored the islands' Government of National Unity, the power-sharing arrangement written into Zanzibar's constitution to keep its two halves from tearing apart. The half that most needed persuading was Pemba.

Pemba Island (the island guide) has voted heavily against the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) in every contested multiparty election since the 1990s. Unguja, the larger island with the capital and the tourist economy, leans the other way. The result is a semi-autonomous region where the opposition can win one island almost completely, lose the overall count narrowly or not so narrowly, and claim fraud, and where the state has repeatedly answered protest with force.

Image: pxef.com

The killings of January 2001

Multiparty politics returned to Tanzania in 1992. In Zanzibar the opposition was the Civic United Front (CUF), led by Seif Sharif Hamad, a Pemban known to supporters as Maalim Seif. CUF said it was cheated of victory in 1995 and again in October 2000.

On 26 and 27 January 2001, CUF supporters marched in Unguja and Pemba to demand a rerun. Police and soldiers opened fire. Human Rights Watch counted at least 35 dead and more than 600 injured; a government commission put the toll at 31 killed and 294 injured. About 2,000 Zanzibaris, many of them from Pemba, fled across the sea to Kenya, becoming Tanzania's first refugees. Nobody was punished. Pembans still mark the anniversary every January.

Power-sharing, annulment and a party switch

After years of talks, Zanzibar amended its constitution in 2010 to require a Government of National Unity: the runner-up party, if it won at least 10 percent, gets the post of First Vice-President and a share of ministries. Maalim Seif took the post that year.

The system broke in 2015. With results coming in, the chairman of the Zanzibar Electoral Commission annulled the whole election on 28 October, citing irregularities. CUF, which said it had won, boycotted the March 2016 rerun, and CCM took every seat. In 2019 Maalim Seif and most of his followers left a split CUF for ACT-Wazalendo. The 2020 election was again marred by violence, with ACT reporting deaths among its supporters on Pemba, but the party joined the unity government that December. Maalim Seif died in February 2021; Othman Masoud succeeded him.

October 2025

The general election of 29 October 2025 was the most violent in Tanzania's history. On the mainland, President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared re-elected with almost 98 percent after the main opposition leader, Tundu Lissu of Chadema, was kept off the ballot while on trial for treason, and ACT-Wazalendo's candidate was disqualified on technicalities. Protests broke out in Dar es Salaam and spread to other cities. Security forces fired on crowds for about three days. The opposition said at least 700 people were killed; independent researchers say the true number may be in the hundreds or thousands, with bodies removed from streets and hospitals. The internet was shut down for nearly a week. Human Rights Watch has documented bystanders shot.

In Zanzibar, President Hussein Mwinyi was declared re-elected with 74.8 percent. ACT-Wazalendo rejected the result, alleged irregularities, and refused at first to rejoin the unity government. For months the post of First Vice-President stayed empty.

The deal of 2026

On 9 July 2026 CCM and ACT-Wazalendo signed a reconciliation statement at the State House in Zanzibar, promising dialogue and reform of the constitution, the electoral system, the civil service, the courts and local government. A ten-member committee has three months to report. In September ACT nominated Othman, and Mwinyi reappointed him.

The dilemma is an old one for Pemba's opposition. Joining the government brings posts and a voice without justice for the dead; staying out keeps its hands clean and leaves it with no voice at all. It faced the same choice after 2001, 2010 and 2020.

The pattern hasn't changed: Pemba votes, the result is disputed, people die, and a deal follows. What would change it is an election Pembans believe.