The acting president of Tanzania, Samia Solution Hassanwon Wednesday’s general elections with 97.66% of the votes, as reported this Saturday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)after elections marked by violent protests and the exclusion of important opposition leaders.
According to the official results announced by the INEC president, Jacobs Mwambeleon public television TBC, Hassan obtained 31,913,866 votes (97,66 %).
“In compliance with the Constitution and the laws of the United Republic of TanzaniaI declare Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan elected president of the United Republic of Tanzania,” Mwambegele declared this Saturday. Hassan, 65, thus achieves a five year termrenewable once.
The second most voted candidate, Hello Teacherde Chaumma (siglas en suajili de Chama Cha Ukombozi Umma, People’s Liberation Party), obtained 213,414 votes (0.65%), according to INEC.
The elections have been characterized by protests that broke out this Wednesday, election day, and continued until this Friday motivated by allegations of fraud and repression during the electoral process, in cities such as the economic capital, Dar es Salaam; Arusha (north) o Mbeya (west).
At least 150 people have died in the demonstrations that have broken out in Dar es Salaam since the elections, harshly repressed by the Police, according to EFE.
For his part, the opponent Party of Democracy and Progress (Chadema)in statements to international media, has estimated the fatalities at about 700a fact that agents on the ground have not yet been able to verify.
Hassan became President in 2021 due to the sudden death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, of whom she was vice president.
The president attended the elections for the ruler Revolution Party (CCM, for its acronym in Swahili), which – along with its predecessor, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU, in English) – has been in power since independence in 1961.
Some 37.65 million voters, out of a population of more than 62 million, were called this Wednesday to elect their next head of state, as well as the 264 members of the National Assembly (Unicameral Parliament) and local government councilors.
Seventeen presidential candidates, mostly little-known, were on the ballots.
But the two main opposition leaders were missing: Tundu Lissuleader of Chadema, in preventive detention since his arrest last April and accused of treason (a crime that can carry the death penalty); and Luhaga Mpinafrom the Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT-Wazalendo), whose candidacy was rejected by the authorities.
After the Magufuli regime, marked by the repression of dissent, Hassan came to power with a program of reforms that suggested openness and reconciliation.
The president lifted the ban on political rallies and ended the restrictions imposed on several media outlets, a context that led Lissu to return to the country in January 2023. after years of exile in Belgium.
However, the situation has taken a different turn since then and arrests, kidnappings and torture of opponents have multiplied in the country, as several organizations specialized in human rights have reported.
The post The acting president of Tanzania obtains almost 98% of the votes in an election marked by the exclusion of opponents appeared first on Veritas News.
