(Reuters) -Tanzania’s electoral commission declared on Saturday that President Samia Suluhu Hassan had won, with nearly 98% of the votes, an election that set off violent protests across the country this week.
The result hands Hassan, who took power in 2021 after the death in office of her predecessor, a five-year term to govern the East African country of 68 million people.
Protests erupted during Wednesday’s vote for president and parliament, with some demonstrators tearing down banners of Hassan and setting fire to government buildings and police firing teargas and gunshots, according to witnesses.
Demonstrators are angry about the electoral commission’s exclusion of Hassan’s two biggest challengers from the race and what they described as widespread repression.
Tanzania’s main opposition party said on Friday hundreds of people had been killed in the protests, while the U.N. human rights office said credible reports indicated at least 10 people were killed in three cities.
The government dismissed the opposition’s death toll as “hugely exaggerated” and has rejected criticisms of its human rights record.
Reuters could not independently verify casualty figures.
(Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Clarence Fernandez)
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