Tanzanians cast their votes on Wednesday in an election widely anticipated to see President Samia Suluhu Hassan secure victory, following the disqualification of candidates from the two primary opposition parties.
Small groups of protesters were dispersed by police at polling stations in two Dar es Salaam neighbourhoods, Reuters witnesses reported, after activists had called for demonstrations via social media.
Concurrently, internet monitor NetBlocks confirmed a nationwide disruption to connectivity across Tanzania.
The election proceeded without the leading opposition party, CHADEMA, whose leader, Tundu Lissu, is currently facing treason charges, which he denies.
The electoral commission had previously disqualified CHADEMA in April, citing their refusal to sign an electoral code of conduct.
The commission also disqualified Luhaga Mpina, the presidential candidate for the second-largest opposition party, ACT-Wazalendo, after an objection from the attorney general, leaving only candidates from minor parties taking on Hassan.
“There is no election in Tanzania. If I may sum up properly, it is a coronation,” Deogratius Munishi, CHADEMA’s secretary for foreign affairs, told Citizen Television in neighbouring Kenya on Wednesday.
The government has said the election is being conducted fairly and denied allegations of widespread human rights abuses in the run-up, including abductions of opposition figures.
Results due within three days
Voters are also choosing members of the country’s 400-seat parliament and a president and lawmakers in the semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago.
Polls are due to close at 1300 GMT, and results are expected within three days.
“I urge all Tanzanians, those who are still at home, to come out and exercise their right and vote and choose their preferred leaders,” Hassan said after voting in the administrative capital Dodoma.
She has been traversing the country of around 68 million people to tout her record of expanding transport networks and increasing power generation.
Juma Mtali, a businessperson voting in Dar es Salaam, said his experience had been smooth.
“As of now it is very peaceful,” he said.
Small groups of young people protested in Dar es Salaam’s Manzese and Ubungo neighbourhoods before being dispersed by police, Reuters witnesses said.
Government ordered probe into alleged abductions
Hassan’s CCM, whose predecessor party led the struggle for independence for mainland Tanzania in the 1950s, has dominated national politics since it was founded in 1977.
Hassan, one of ONLY two female heads of state in Africa, won plaudits after coming to power in 2021 for easing repression of political opponents and censorship that proliferated under her predecessor, John Magufuli, who died in office.
But in the last two years, rights campaigners and opposition candidates have accused the government of unexplained abductions of its critics.
This month, the country’s former ambassador to Cuba, now a fierce critic of the government, was taken from his home by unknown assailants, his family said. Police said they were investigating.
Hassan has said her government is committed to respecting human rights and last year ordered an investigation into the reports of abductions. No official findings have been made public.
