SADC says Tanzania voting did not meet bloc's principles for democratic elections

Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan. [Kelly Ayodi, Standard]

Tanzanian citizens could not "express their democratic will" in elections last week, African observers said Monday in a first report citing intimidation, censorship, and lack of an opposition.

Hundreds of people are reported to have died in protests after the east African nation's presidential and parliamentary polls on October 29, with key candidates either jailed or barred from participating.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan was inaugurated on Monday, claiming 98 percent of the vote, even as the opposition labelled it a "sham".

In a statement Richard Msowoya, head of the Southern African Development Community Electoral Observation Mission (SEOM), said it was their "tentative conclusion that, in most areas, voters could not express their democratic will".

The 66 observers came from 10 countries -- Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe -- and were deployed across 27 of 31 Tanzanian regions.

The report said stakeholders warned the election-day quiet "belies covert acts of general intimidation of the population and opposition".

"They also described a tense and intimidating political atmosphere," noting a rise in political abductions.

Tanzania's Tanganyika Law Society said before the polls it had confirmed 83 abductions since Hassan came to power in 2021, with another 20 reported in recent weeks.

SEOM said turnout was "very low", noting a visible security and police presence throughout the day.

"In some polling stations, they [police officers] were more than the number of voters," they said.

Tanzania's electoral commission claimed turnout was 87 percent.

The report said in some polling stations, "there were multiple orderly stacked ballots in the ballot box during voting, which created a perception of ballot stuffing".

It added there were impressions some people "cast more than one vote at a time with the intention to cheat the election system".

It noted violence in Mbeya, Dodoma, Arusha, and in the largest city of Dar es Salaam.

An opposition spokersperson said Saturday they believed "no less than 800 people" died during days of unrest.

SEOM also noted concern that there was "increasing covert and overt limitations on the right to freedom of expression", and that there was "heavy censorship of online information platforms".