Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan won the country’s presidential election with about 97.66% of the votes, according to Electoral Commission results released on Saturday.
The electoral body said about 87% of the country’s 37.6 million registered voters voted in the election.
Tanzania’s main opposition party CHADEMA was disqualified from elections in April after it refused to sign a code of conduct and its leader Tundu Lissu was charged with treason.
Chadema said the election was like a “coronation”.
The opposition party ACT-Wazalendo was also disqualified from the vote, leaving only smaller parties in the field against Hassan.
The 65-year-old came to power in Tanzania in 2021 following the death of her predecessor John Magufuli while he was in office.
Hassan will now lead the East African country of 68 million people for the next five years.
Hassan’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi party has ruled the country since independence more than 60 years ago.
Protests and lockouts
Tanzania’s election was marred by political violence, with protests and clashes.
Protests broke out during voting on Wednesday, with protesters tearing down Hassan banners and setting government buildings on fire. According to eyewitnesses, the police retaliated by firing tear gas shells and firing bullets.
CHADEMA said on Friday that hundreds of people had been killed in the protests, while the UN human rights office could only confirm at least 10 deaths related to the protests in three cities.
The government rejected the opposition’s death toll as “grossly exaggerated” and imposed a lockdown on Wednesday night to prevent people from taking to the streets.
Allegations of violation of rights before voting
Human rights groups such as Amnesty International reported a pattern of enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings in Tanzania ahead of the elections.
In June, a UN panel of human rights experts said there had been more than 200 cases of enforced disappearances in Tanzania since 2019, adding that they were “concerned by reports of a pattern of repression” ahead of the elections.
The Tanzanian president took an “unprecedented crackdown on political opponents”, he said.
International Crisis Group, in its most recent analysis on the country, said the Tanzanian government has curbed freedom of expression, ranging from a ban on X and the Tanzanian digital platform JamiiForums to “silencing critical voices through intimidation or arrest.”
Edited by: Srinivas Majumdaru