Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan has won the elections in the country, clinching another term amid widespread violence across Tanzania. The Election Commission on Saturday said that Samia secured 98 per cent of the votes, nearly sweeping the 32 million ballots cast earlier this week.
However, international observers have raised concerns over the transparency of elections in Tanzania and the deadly violence that killed hundreds of people and injured hundreds of others.
Jacobs Mwambegele, the electoral chief, announced, “I hereby announce Samia Suluhu Hassan as the winner of the presidential election under the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party.”
The United Nations on Friday urged Tanzania’s security forces to refrain from using unnecessary force against demonstrators and demanded investigations into election-related violence, after polls descended into deadly chaos.
The main opposition Chadema party told AFP on Friday that “around 700” people had been killed in three days of election protests.
The UN human rights office also said it had received credible reports of deaths in the economic capital Dar es Salaam, in Shinyanga in the northwest, and Morogoro in the east, with security forces firing live ammunition and tear gas to disperse protesters.
“We are alarmed by the deaths and injuries that have occurred in the ongoing election-related protests in Tanzania,” office spokesman Seif Magango told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Nairobi.
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More Shorts“We call on the security forces to refrain from using unnecessary or disproportionate force, including lethal weapons, against protesters, and to make every effort to deescalate tensions. Protesters should demonstrate peacefully.”
With inputs from agencies


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