Polls have opened in Tanzania for presidential and parliamentary elections being held without the leading opposition party, as the government of Samia Suluhu Hassan has been cracking down on dissent ahead of the vote.
More than 37 million registered voters are casting their ballots from 7am (4:00 GMT) until 4pm (13:00 GMT). The election commission says it will announce the results within three days of election day.
In addition to the presidential election, voters will choose members of the country’s 400-seat parliament, and a president and politicians in the semiautonomous Zanzibar archipelago.
Despite heavy security in the commercial capital, Dar-es-Salaam, on Wednesday, hundreds of protesters took to the streets singing, “We want our country back.”
A group burned down a police station along Nelson Mandela Road, the main road from the city’s port, the AFP news agency reported. Police fired tear gas but were forced to retreat as protesters pelted them with stones. Some polling stations in Dar-es-Salaam were virtually empty in the morning, AFP said, which suggested voter turnout may be low.
Internet connectivity was also disrupted across Tanzania, according to users in the country. NetBlocks, an internet access advocacy group, confirmed the outage, saying on X that “live network data show a nationwide disruption to internet connectivity”.
President Hassan, 65, is expected to win the vote after candidates from the two leading opposition parties were barred from standing.
Credit: aljazeera.com
