(Reuters) -Police in Tanzania fired tear gas and gunshots on Thursday to disperse groups of protesters who returned to the streets a day after a general election marred by violent demonstrations, witnesses said.
Protests broke out in commercial capital Dar es Salaam and other cities during the vote on Wednesday over the exclusion of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s two biggest challengers from the presidential race, as well as what demonstrators say is increasing government repression.
Police ordered an overnight curfew in Dar es Salaam, a city of more than seven million people, after government offices and other buildings were set ablaze.
Internet access, disrupted during the election, appeared to be returning intermittently on Thursday.
Tito Magoti, a Tanzanian human rights activist, told Reuters he had received reports of at least five deaths in Wednesday’s protests. A diplomatic source, who asked not to be named, said there were solid reports at least 10 people had been killed in Dar es Salaam.
Reuters could not independently verify these reports and spokespeople for the government and police did not respond to requests for comment.
The state-run Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation began airing the announcement of provisional election results, which showed Hassan winning commanding majorities in various constituencies.
PROTESTERS DISCUSS PLANS FOR NEW MARCHES
Dozens of protesters returned to the streets of at least three neighbourhoods in Dar es Salaam on Thursday, where police fired gunshots and tear gas, a Reuters witness said.
Other witnesses in the northern cities of Arusha and Mwanza said police fired tear gas there on Thursday to disperse small protests.
The British government said international flights had been cancelled to and from Dar es Salaam’s airport and that the airport in Arusha and one near Mount Kilimanjaro were closed.
“The people are rewriting our political culture from being cows, if I use this word respectfully … to being active citizens,” said Magoti.
The unrest presents a test for Hassan, who won plaudits after taking office in 2021 for easing repression of opponents and censorship that had increased under her predecessor John Magufuli.
In recent years, however, rights campaigners and opposition candidates have accused the government of unexplained abductions of its critics.
Hassan said last year she had ordered an investigation into reports of abductions, but no official findings have been released.
CIVIL SERVANTS TOLD TO STAY HOME
In a post on government spokesperson Gerson Msigwa’s Instagram account, the government said a work-from-home order to civil servants, first issued for Thursday, would be extended to Friday. It also said anyone else without an urgent reason to go out should work from home.
Tanzania’s main opposition party CHADEMA had called for protests during the election, which also included votes for members of parliament and officials for the semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago.
CHADEMA was disqualified in April after it refused to sign a code of conduct, and its leader Tundu Lissu was charged with treason.
The commission also disqualified the candidate for opposition party ACT-Wazalendo, leaving only minor parties to take on Hassan.
(Writing by Vincent Mumo Nzilani; Editing by Aaron Ross, Toby Chopra and Ed Osmond)
