The ECR Group is calling on the European Parliament to award its 2026 Sakharov Prize to Tundu Lissu, the Tanzanian opposition leader and human-rights defender nominated by the Group in September.

Lissu has become one of the most prominent voices in Tanzania for democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

A lawyer and Chairman of Tanzania’s main opposition party CHADEMA, Lissu has spent much of his public life campaigning for free and fair elections, constitutional government, freedom of expression and the rule of law.

In 2017, he survived an assassination attempt in which he was shot multiple times. After receiving medical treatment abroad, he returned to Tanzania and resumed his political activities, standing in the 2020 presidential election. In April 2025, he was arrested following a political rally and charged with treason, a capital offence carrying the possibility of the death penalty.

Following a proposal by Carlo Fidanza, Leader of the ECR’s Italian Delegation, and Latvian MEP Rihards Kols, the ECR Group is now calling on the European Parliament to recognise the courage of its candidate, Tundu Lissu, by including him among the three finalists for the Prize.

“Tundu Lissu has continued to defend peaceful democratic change despite facing consequences that no political opponent should ever have to fear. His determination in the face of imprisonment and a possible death sentence is extraordinary, and it is precisely this courage that the Sakharov Prize should recognise,” Fidanza said.

“When a government treats peaceful opposition as treason, it is claiming that loyalty to those in power is the same as loyalty to the country. Tundu Lissu has shown the opposite: that patriotism can mean challenging your government, defending free elections and insisting that citizens have the right to hold power to account. That courage deserves Europe’s recognition,” Kols said.

The Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Development will select a three-candidate shortlist on 19 October, before the Conference of Presidents chooses the winner on 22 October. The award ceremony will take place during the December plenary session in Strasbourg.