[ad_1]
President Magufuli received more than 12 million votes, while the main opposition figure had just two million amid allegations of electoral fraud.
Tanzanian President John Magufuli won the presidential election, the National Electoral Commission said on Friday night, a contest dismissed by the opposition as a “parody” due to widespread irregularities.
Magufuli received 12.5 million votes in Wednesday’s election, or 85 percent, while his main rival, Tundu Lissu of the Chadema party, got 1.9 million votes, or 13 percent, the electoral commission said. .
“The commission declares John Magufuli of CCM [Chama Cha Mapinduzi] who obtained the majority of the votes as the winner in the presidential seat, ”said the commission’s president, Semistocles Kaijage.
Magufuli had been seeking a second five-year term and promised voters that he will boost the economy by completing ambitious infrastructure projects that he started in his first term.
Lissu previously said that he will not accept the eventual results of the elections.
The vote “marked the most significant setback in Tanzania’s democratic credentials,” Tanzania Elections Watch, a group of regional experts, said in an assessment released on Friday. He observed a strong deployment of the military and police whose conduct created a “climate of fear.”
“The electoral process, so far, is far below acceptable international standards” for holding free and fair elections, the group said.
Few international observers were allowed to witness the vote.
US Undersecretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy said Friday that “we remain deeply concerned by reports of systematic interference in the democratic process.”
“We continue to review credible allegations of the use of force against unarmed civilians,” he said in a tweet.
Magufuli’s CCM party, a version of which has held power in Tanzania since independence from Great Britain in 1961, had already held power in the semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago in the Indian Ocean with 76 percent of the vote.
Dozens of leaders and members of the opposition party were arrested in Zanzibar on Thursday and at least one is in hospital with serious injuries following allegations that he was beaten by police, who have not commented on the incident.
The US embassy in the East African country said Thursday that there were “credible allegations of significant election-related fraud and intimidation” in Wednesday’s vote for a president and politicians.
The election was marred by accusations of arrests of candidates and protesters, restrictions on agents of political parties to access polling stations, multiple voting, prior verification of ballots and a generalized blocking of social networks.
Election commission officials were not immediately available to comment on the allegations of wrongdoing.
On Wednesday, the commission denied the false vote allegations, saying they were unofficial and unfounded.
‘Gloomy days’
But observers say Tanzania’s reputation for democratic ideals is crumbling, with Magufuli accused of severely stifling dissenting voices in his first five-year term. Political meetings of the opposition were banned in 2016, a year after he took office. The media have been attacked.
Zitto Kabwe, leader of the main opposition party in Zanzibar, ACT-Wazalendo, and Chadema’s parliamentary leader, Freeman Mbowe, were among the dozens of opposition candidates who lost their seats to the ruling party.
The fear of post-election violence persists as many Tanzanians watch in dismay.
“October 29, 2020: One of the darkest days in the #political history of #Tanzania,” tweeted Chambi Chachage, professor of African studies at Princeton University.
[ad_2]
