Godbless Jonathan Lema (born 26 October 1976) is a Tanzanian Chadema politician and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Arusha City constituency from 2010 to 2015. He was also a candidate for the same constituency in the 2015 general election which was conducted on 25 October 2015. However, the parliamentary election for Arusha Constituency had to be postponed following the death of Estomoh Malya who was the parliamentary candidate for the

Alliance for Change and Transparency The Alliance for Change and Transparency (), sometimes known as the ACT–Wazalendo, is the third-largest political party in Tanzania. It received its permanent registration in May 2014. Background The party was founded in 2014. The party fielde ...

, a newly established opposition political party in Tanzania. The by-election was scheduled for 13 December 2015 and Lema was expected to win since Arusha is one of the Chadema strongholds. In the October 2015 general election, his party won 23 out of 24 members of the

Arusha Arusha City is a Tanzanian city and the regional capital of the Arusha Region, with a population of 416,442 plus 323,198 in the surrounding Arusha District Council (2012 census). Located below Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the eastern bran ...

City Council. Lema has been vocal and well known following his activists politics against the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi. He led a number of political rallies and protests against the government and CCM, some of which resulted in serious injuries and deaths after fierce police confrontation. However, his leadership increased Chadema popularity in the Northern City of Arusha and for the first time, its council is led by the opposition. In 2020 he moved to Canada as a refugee, after being arrested without cause in a government crackdown on the opposition Chadema party following the 2020 Tanzanian general election.

References

1976 births Living people Chadema MPs Tanzanian MPs 2010–2015 Geita Secondary School alumni Tanzanian emigrants to Canada {{Tanzania-politician-stub