Tanzania Opposition leader Tundu Lissu denounces poll results, calls for mass action

Tanzania’s top opposition presidential candidate has said he will not accept the result of Wednesday’s election due to widespread voting irregularities.

“Whatever happened yesterday was not an election,” Tundu Lissu told journalists in Dar es Salaam.

In a rejoinder response, to the election process criticisms, the Tanzania electoral commission said on Wednesday that the accusations were biased and lacked truth.

Mr Tundu Lissu was one of 14 candidates challenging the incumbent President John pombe Magufuli whose party has been in what opposition sees as autocratic power for decades.

Magufuli was once hailed as a great leader by some for his dictatorship approach in running the government, whose first term was marred by allegations from sections of rights groups that he was abusing and restricting democratic freedoms.

Magufuli government had Maalim Seif Sharif, the main opposition presidential candidate on the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar, arrested shortly after saying that the polls had been rigged and calling for mass action across the country.

On Wednesday, the chair of the National Electoral Commission dismissed the claims of electoral malpractices. Semistocles Kaijage said allegations of fake ballot papers were unsubstantiated.

On both Tuesday and Wednesday, witnesses, internet users, and global netizens reported that WhatsApp and Twitter, among other phone apps, had been conspicuously blocked.

Reports of violence were recorded in Zanzibar on Tuesday and voters tear-gassed.

“This was not an election by both Tanzanian and international laws. It was just a gang of people who have just decided to misuse state machinery to cling to power,” Mr Lissu, the candidate for the Chadema party, said.

He also called upon the international community to denounce what he termed as fraudulent poll, and sanction those he accused of bungling the electoral process. He also urged other nations to desist from recognizing the outcome of the election results.

Favor Wamboi, Maisha TV