On October 28, 29 million voters were urged to vote in Tanzania for presidential, legislative and local elections. President John Magufuli is running for another five-year term. When the results began to be given by the election commission on Thursday, the opposition said it would not recognize them.
as reported from the region, Sebastien Nemeth
“This election is a complete scam,” said Tundu Lissu. The opponent, leader of the ACT-Wazalendo party and the Tanzanian presidential candidate, condemned “unprecedented fraud in Tanzania’s history” and spoke of several violations of the electoral law.
Tundu Lissu explained that his observers had been prevented from accessing thousands of polling stations, others were allowed to do so but six hours after the start of the election. “The ballot vote had already taken place,” he said, adding that many officers never received transcripts of the ballot.
“Unjustified accusations”
For Tundu Lissu, “the will of the Tanzanians has been violated”, “the results are therefore already illegal” and therefore“The opposition will not recognize them.” He also called on the international community not to recognize the results and to put pressure on the government, the electoral commission and the leaders of the security services.
The opposition finally called on the citizens “to take this issue into their own hands through massive and democratic actions and demonstrations”. His lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, said he had documented these frauds and filed cases with the African Union (AU) and the Commonwealth organization.
In the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar, which voted on Tuesday, October 27, opposition candidate Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad also called for peaceful demonstrations this morning. But according to his ACT party, he was arrested shortly after along with his deputy chairman and members of the movement’s central committee.
The Electoral Commission (NEC) has already denied fraud. The president of the institute, Semistocles Kaijage, felt that these allegations were not substantiated. He therefore called on the Tanzanians to ignore these “baseless accusations”.
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