Incumbent John Pombe Magufuli has been declared winner of the Tanzania Presidential Election by the Electoral Commission.
In July 2020, while running on the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) card, Magufuli was nominated by his party members and was unopposed. This was after the expulsion of Bernard Membe, the former foreign minister who had plans of heavily opposing the nomination.
In the hotly contested race, Magufuli bagged an impressive 12.5 million votes of 15.9 million voters. On Wednesday, there were wide criticisms during election day as key members of the opposition came out to rubbish the process as they claim that the election was marred by malpractice.
Opposition leader Tundu Lissu went ahead and described the election as a sham and vehemently vowed to expose the malpractice and body’s undoing. “What’s been presented to the world is a complete fraud, is not an election,” Mr. Lissu said on Thursday.
Lissu called on his supporters to take “matters into their own hands through peaceful, mass, democratic action and protests” in addition to asking the African Union and other international observers not to recognize them.
Magufuli, born 29 October 1959, becomes the fifth President of Tanzania and has been in office since 2015. His regime has been awash with controversy as he has been accused of cracking down on critics and harassing political opponents and journalists.
Key to note that, earlier this week, there were complaints of restricted internet access to various platforms. Citizens of Tanzania, especially those subscribing to the opposition, believed this was a deterrence to the various forms of awareness that had steadily picked ahead of the election.
