The Tanzanian president wins the controversial elections with more than 97% of the votes

KAMPALA, Uganda — Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has won the country’s disputed elections with more than 97% of the vote, according to official results announced early Saturday, in a rare landslide victory in the region.

Hassan appeared at an event in the administrative capital Dodoma to receive the winner’s certificate from election authorities. In her remarks afterwards, she said the results showed that Tanzanians overwhelmingly voted for a female leader.

After the election, “it is time to unite our country and not destroy what we have built over six decades,” she said. “We will take all measures and involve all security agencies to ensure that the country is peaceful.”

Hassan came to power in 2021. As vice president, she was automatically elevated when her predecessor, John Pombe Magufuli, died months into his second term.

The result is likely to heighten the concerns of critics, opposition groups and others who said Tanzania’s elections were not a competition but a coronation after Hassan’s two main rivals were expelled or barred from participating. She faced sixteen candidates from smaller parties.

The October 29 elections were marred by violence as demonstrators took to the streets in major cities to protest the election and stop the counting of votes. The army was deployed to help the police quell the riots. In the East African country, internet connectivity has been on and off, disrupting travel and other activities.

Protests spread across Tanzania and the government postponed the reopening of universities, scheduled for November 3.

There was a tense calm on the streets of Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital, on Saturday. Security forces manning roadblocks asked for the identification cards of those going out.

Tanzanian authorities have not said how many people were killed or injured in the violence. A spokesman for the UN human rights office, Seif Magango, told a UN briefing in Geneva on Friday via video from Kenya that there were credible reports of 10 deaths in Dar es Salaam, next to the towns of Shinyanga and Morogoro.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday he was concerned about the situation in Tanzania and urged all parties to “avoid further escalation”.

The foreign ministers of Britain, Canada and Norway cited “credible reports of a large number of fatalities and significant injuries as a result of the security response to protests” in a joint statement.

Tundu Lissu, leader of the opposition group Chadema, has been jailed for months on charges of treason after calling for electoral reforms that he said were a prerequisite for free and fair elections. Another opposition figure, Luhaga Mpina of the ACT-Wazalendo group, was barred from running.

For the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, its decades-long hold on power was at stake amid the rise of charismatic opposition figures hoping to lead the country towards political change.

Still, a landslide victory is unheard of in the region. Only President Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s authoritarian leader, regularly wins by a large margin.

Rights groups including Amnesty International warned of a pattern of enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings in Tanzania in the run-up to the elections.

In June, a United Nations panel of human rights experts cited more than 200 cases of enforced disappearances since 2019 and said they were “alarmed by reports of a pattern of repression” ahead of the elections.

Hassan oversaw “an unprecedented crackdown on political opponents,” the International Crisis Group said in its latest analysis. “The government has imposed restrictions on freedom of expression, ranging from a ban on X and restrictions on the Tanzanian digital platform JamiiForums to silencing critical voices through intimidation or arrest.”

The political maneuvering by Tanzanian authorities is remarkable, even in a country where one-party rule has been the norm since the emergence of multi-party politics in 1992.

Government critics point out that previous leaders tolerated opposition while maintaining a firm grip on power, while Hassan is accused of leading with an authoritarian style that is at odds with youth-led democratic movements elsewhere in the region.

A version of the ruling CCM party, which has ties to the Communist Party of China, has ruled Tanzania since independence from Britain in 1961, a line Hassan continues with her victory.

CCM is merged with the state, is effectively in charge of the security apparatus and is structured in such a way that new leaders emerge every five to ten years.

The orderly transitions within the CCM have long maintained Tanzania’s reputation as an oasis of political stability and relative peace, a key reason for the party’s significant support across the country, especially among rural voters.