President Suluhu Declared Winner Of Tanzanian Election Amid Widespread Violence

Tanzania’s electoral commission has declared President Samia Suluhu Hassan winner of the disputed election.

According to the results announced early Saturday, she won with nearly 98% of the votes.

The election had set off violent protests across the country, with around 700 deaths, according to the opposition.

John Kitoka, a spokesperson for the Chadema opposition party, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that hundreds of people had been killed.

“As we speak, the figure for deaths in Dar [es Salaam] is around 350 and for Mwanza it is 200-plus. Added to figures from other places around the country, the overall figure is around 700,” he said.

He added that the toll could be much higher because killings could be happening during a night-time curfew that was imposed from Wednesday.

A security source told AFP there had been reports of more than 500 dead, “maybe 700-800 in the whole country”.

Amnesty International said it had received information that at least 100 people had been killed.

Kitoka said Chadema’s numbers had been gathered by a network of party members going to hospitals and health clinics and “counting dead bodies”.

He demanded that the government “stop killing our protesters” and called for a transitional government to pave the way for free and fair elections. “Stop police brutality. Respect the will of the people which is electoral justice,” Kitoka said.

The government dismissed the opposition’s death toll as “hugely exaggerated” and has rejected criticism of its human rights record.

The Tanzanian authorities had imposed a nationwide curfew and restricted access to the internet.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo on Friday denied allegations that security services had used excessive force, saying there had only been a “very few small pockets” of incidents caused by criminal elements.

But U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a thorough and impartial investigation into all allegations of excessive use of force.

President Hassan is seeking her first full term in office after assuming power in March 2021 following the death of her predecessor, John Pombe Magufuli.

Aside from Suhu who ran under the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, 16 other candidates were in the election.

However, the absence of key opposition figures, either barred, disqualified, or facing legal battles, cast a long shadow over the legitimacy of the contest

There were protests on election day over what demonstrators said was the stifling of the opposition after the exclusion of key candidates from the presidential ballot.