Tanzania’s President Samia Hassan has lifted a ban on opposition rallies imposed in 2016 by her strongman predecessor, in an overture to political rivals seeking the restoration of democratic traditions.

Hassan has been under pressure to break with the hard-line policies of John Magufuli, who died in 2021 after six years of heavy-handed rule in a country once seen as a democratic beacon in East Africa.

Magufuli came to power in 2015 as a no-nonsense man of the people but presided over a sustained crackdown on political freedoms, earning the nickname Bulldozer for his refusal to brook any dissent.

Early in his tenure, he banned political rallies, saying it was time for work, not politics.

But critics said the ban applied only to opposition groups, with the ruling party free to assemble, while rival gatherings were violently broken up by police and their officials thrown in jail.