Tanzania’s electoral commission has declared President Samia Suluhu Hassan the winner of the disputed Presidential election.
Announcing the results early Saturday, the electoral umpire said she won with nearly 98% of the votes.
Responding to the declaration, the opposition said the election had caused violent protests across the country, with around 700 deaths.
A spokesperson for the Chadema opposition party, John Kitoka, told newsmen that hundreds of people had been killed, pointing out that the toll could be much higher because killings could be happening during a night-time curfew that was imposed from Wednesday.
He demanded that the government stop killing protesters and called for a transitional government to pave the way for free and fair elections.
The Tanzanian Foreign Affairs Minister, Mahmoud Thabit Kombo, however, dismissed the opposition’s death toll as “hugely exaggerated” and had rejected criticism of the government’s human rights record.