Samia wins the Tanzanian election as hundreds are feared dead in the fighting
President Samia Sudu Hassan has been declared the winner of Tanzania’s Mongani election, securing another term in office after days of crisis across the country.
According to the Electoral Commission, SAMIA won 98% of the vote, nearly 32 million votes in Wednesday’s election.
International observers have expressed concern over the lack of transparency and widespread violence that has left people dead and hundreds injured.
A nationwide internet shutdown makes it difficult to confirm the death toll. The government has sought to play down the scale of the violence – and authorities have extended stay-at-home orders in a bid to end the unrest.
“I hereby declare Samia Sulu Hashan as the winner of the presidential election under Mekisi’s Chama Chapeinduzi (CCM) party,” Jacobs Mwambelele, the head of elections, said while announcing the results on Saturday morning.
Samia secured about 31.9 million votes, or 97.66% of the total, which is close to 87% of the country’s 37.6 registered votes, said the election manager.
On the independent Tanzanian island of Zanzibar – which elects a government and its leader – Hussein Mwiny Harsein, who is a radical president, won almost 80% of the vote.
The opposition in Zanzibar said there was a “massive deception”, AP News Agency reported.
Mwony’s Swenuding-in sports event is going on at Amaanic tatural Stadium in Zanzibar.
Demonstrations continued on Friday, as demonstrators in the Port City of Dar es Salaam and other cities took to the stairs, attacked Samori posters and attacked police and polling stations despite military warnings.
No protests were reported on Saturday morning, but tensions remained high on the streets of Dar es Salaam, where security forces set up roadblocks across the city.
The demonstrations are mainly led by young protesters, who have accused the election of being unfair.
They accused the Government of undermining democracy by suppressing the main opposition leaders – one is in jail and the other was put under technical pretext.
A spokesman from the Affessional Chadema Party on Friday told AFP News Agency that they were killed in clashes with security forces, while a political source in Tanzania told the BBC that there is evidence that at least 500 people were killed.
Foreign Minister Mahmoud Kombo Thait described the violence as “a few isolated pockets of incidents here and there” and said “the security forces are acting very quickly and decisively to deal with the situation”.
There were leading opposition figures – Tundu Lissi, who will face charges of treason, and Luhaga Mpina of the AST-WAZalendo Party – but it was added to the official technicalities.
Fourteen fringe parties, none of which had significant public support, were allowed to run.
Samia’s ruling party, the CCM, has dominated the country’s politics and has not lost an election since independence.
Ahead of the election, rights groups accused the government of repression, apologizing for what it called “waves of terror” including forced disappearances, torture, and mass killings of opposition figures.
The government denied the claims, and officials said the election would be free and fair.
Samia came to office in 2021 as Tanzania’s first female President following the death of President John Magufuli.
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