On Saturday, Tanzania’s electoral commission declared President Samia Suluhu Hassan the overwhelming winner of this week’s presidential election. However, this announcement comes after days of intense and violent protests, plunging the nation into its most severe political crisis in decades.
The commission reported that Ms. Hassan, a 65-year-old politician originally from Zanzibar, secured nearly 98 percent of all votes cast on Wednesday. They also stated an almost 87 percent voter turnout from the country’s 37.6 million registered citizens, significantly higher than the approximately 50 percent turnout in the 2020 election.
Doubts about the election’s fairness have been raised by independent monitors. Leading figures in the European Parliament explicitly stated that the elections were “neither free nor fair,” citing numerous reports of voting irregularities, the impeding of observers, and an overall environment of fear and repression during the polling.
Across Tanzania, cities have been rocked by protests, reportedly resulting in many deaths. These demonstrations erupted after the two primary opposition candidates were barred from participating in the election. The government, however, maintains that its response to the protesters did not involve excessive force.
The exact number of casualties from the protests remains a point of contention. The United Nations’ human rights commission reported that at least ten people died after security forces opened fire on demonstrators.
Conversely, Brenda Rupia, spokesperson for the leading opposition party, Chadema, claimed that as many as 200 individuals had lost their lives.
In an extraordinary move for an opposition party, Ms. Rupia urged the military to intervene on Friday. This desperate plea highlights Chadema’s complete loss of faith in Tanzania’s democratic system.
Her suggestion was for the military to hold power temporarily, solely to oversee the election’s annulment, the release of political prisoners, the drafting of a new constitution, and the organization of a fresh vote.
“I implore the international community to press the military to intervene because people are dying,” Ms. Rupia stated during a phone interview, alleging, “The government is announcing fabricated results.”
On state television late Thursday, General Jacob Mkunda, the chief of defense forces, issued a stern warning. He stated that the military would take “appropriate action” against the protesters, whom he labeled as criminals.
Since the election, a 6 p.m. curfew has been enforced in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city. By Friday, a significant security presence was visible, and the streets remained mostly empty.
These protests represent a formidable challenge for President Hassan and the ruling party she strongly supports.
With a population of approximately 70 million, Tanzania has been continuously governed by Ms. Hassan’s party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (or the Party of the Revolution), since 1977, under six consecutive presidents.
The election initially seemed to pose little threat to Ms. Hassan, primarily due to her party’s established power and the electoral commission’s decision to disqualify both Tundu Lissu, the main opposition leader from Chadema, and Luhaga Mpina, leader of the ACT-Wazalendo party. The members of this commission are, notably, appointed by the president.
Consequently, Ms. Hassan only faced a multitude of minor parties on the ballot.
This situation sparked widespread unrest in a nation previously known for its social cohesion, a legacy of its long-serving independence leader, Julius Nyerere, who retired in 1985. While Chadema had advocated for an election boycott, Ms. Rupia admitted that the sheer magnitude of the protests since Wednesday caught the party by surprise.
Driven by deep-seated political grievances and economic frustrations, particularly high youth unemployment, these protests share similarities with recent demonstrations in countries like Morocco and Madagascar, where a president was effectively ousted from power.
Richard Mbunda, a political science lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, noted that some Tanzanian protesters have also voiced calls for military intervention.
A key distinction, however, between the Tanzanian protests and those elsewhere is the presence of a prominent opposition leader. Tundu Lissu, who survived a 2017 assassination attempt with over a dozen gunshot wounds, faced treason charges in April for advocating electoral reforms. His trial commenced this month.