Tanzania’s electoral body declares incumbent President Suluhu winner with 98% of votes cast amid violent protests

Tanzania’s electoral commission declared on Saturday that President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, had won nearly 98 percent of the votes in an election that triggered violent protests across the country this week.

The result gives Hassan, who assumed power in 2021 following the death of her predecessor, a five-year term to govern the East African nation of 68 million people.

In a report by Reuters, protests erupted during Wednesday’s presidential and parliamentary vote, with demonstrators tearing down banners of Hassan, setting fire to government buildings, and clashing with police, who responded with tear gas and gunfire, according to witnesses.

The unrest stems from the exclusion of Hassan’s two main challengers from the race and broader concerns over government repression.

Tanzania’s main opposition party claimed that hundreds of people were killed during the protests, while the U.N. human rights office reported credible accounts of at least 10 deaths in three cities.

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

The electoral commission reported that Hassan received more than 31.9 million votes, or 97.66% of the total, with turnout at nearly 87 percent of the country’s 37.6 million registered voters.

Observers, however, noted lower turnout at some polling stations disrupted by protests.

Authorities have imposed a nationwide curfew for three consecutive nights and restricted internet access. Foreign Affairs Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo denied allegations of excessive force by security services, attributing violence to “very few small pockets of incidents” caused by criminal elements.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, through his spokesperson, called for a thorough and impartial investigation into all allegations of excessive force and deplored the loss of life.

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