Hundreds feared dead in Tanzania as president claims election victory

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Incumbent Samia Suluhu Hassan has been declared the winner of Tanzania’s presidential election with 98 per cent of the vote, a result opposition leaders declared a mockery of the democratic process.

Hundreds are feared dead after authorities shot protesters in cities around the country in the days after Wednesday’s election, though an internet shutdown and a curfew have made verification of casualty numbers impossible.

Tanzania is now facing what opposition leaders and civil rights campaigners called the worst constitutional crisis in the east African country of 68mn people since it won independence in 1961.

Thousands of mainly young people took to the streets on Wednesday in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital, as well as other big cities, including Arusha, a gateway to the country’s upmarket safari industry.

The protesters tore down giant posters of Suluhu Hassan that have proliferated around the country and set fire to government buildings, according to witnesses and widely circulating video footage. Suluhu Hassan condemned the violence as “unpatriotic”.

On Saturday, the electoral commission declared Suluhu Hassan the winner of the election, saying she had secured 31.9mn votes, or 97.66 per cent of the total, with a turnout of 87 per cent. During the voting on Wednesday, witnesses reported empty polling stations, and state television broke with its tradition of broadcasting live footage of people casting their ballots.

In the run-up to the vote, Tundu Lissu, leader of the main opposition Chadema party, was jailed on charges of treason that he strenuously denies, while other opposition figures were beaten, jailed or killed.

Lissu issued a statement from prison at the weekend, saying: “I cannot negotiate with the dictator Samia. I begged her not to kill people and she turned a blind eye. Now she is fighting with Tanzanians, not Chadema.”

The protests have continued despite a curfew and a brutal crackdown, though the number of people on the streets dwindled over the weekend.

In previous days, non-uniformed shooters, commonly referred to as “unknown people”, had been moving in unmarked, black Toyota Noah minivans and shooting at people on the streets, according to witnesses.

There were initial reports of some members of the army protecting protesters who, in some cases, were chanting for the army to take over the country, as happened recently in Madagascar. But in recent days, the army had been less evident on the streets, diplomats said.

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which campaigns for democracy and governance in Africa, described the government crackdown as unacceptable.

“We are dismayed by the new turn taken, banning opposition parties from elections, shutting the internet, shooting at demonstrators, most of them your young people,” it said. “An election which excludes the opposition parties is neither fair or legitimate, the anger in the street is understandable, and expected.”

Maria Sarungi Tsehai, a civil rights campaigner who has been trying to monitor the killings by collating video clips, said police were “hiding the bodies”. She described the situation as “very bad”.

Suluhu Hassan, 65, came to power in 2021 after the death of her predecessor John Magufuli. Vice-president under Magufuli, she entered the presidency as a supposed political reformer and won praise for releasing political prisoners and opening the country to foreign investment.

Suluhu Hassan thanked the security forces for “ensuring that the violence did not stop voting”. The election had been “free and democratic”, she said.