NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Internet connectivity was disrupted across Tanzania as the country on Wednesday held an and the detention of opposition members.
Netblocks, an internet access advocacy group, confirmed the outage, saying on X that “live network data show a nationwide disruption to internet connectivity.” Just before the disruption was confirmed, users noted an internet slowdown in the African country.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who is seeking a second term, belongs to the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party that has governed the country since it gained independence in 1961.
Voting officially began at 7 a.m. local time and was scheduled to end at 4 p.m. (1300 GMT), after which vote tallying will begin. Preliminary results were expected within 24 hours, but the electoral commission has up to seven days to announce the final outcome.
A spot check across dozens of polling stations revealed a low turnout especially among younger voters.
Hassan, who cast his ballot in the legislative capital, Dodoma, urged Tanzanians to turn out in large numbers to vote.
A university student, James Matonya, told the AP he didn’t vote because the election was a “one-horse race.”
The leader of the main opposition CHADEMA party, Tundu Lissu, is in prison and after calling for electoral reforms, while the candidate of the second-largest opposition party was barred from running.
Amnesty International said the atmosphere around the polls was characterized by fear, saying it had verified cases of enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings ahead of the polls. The rights group said alleged abuses by the security forces undermine the legitimacy of the election.
Hassan seeks her first full term in office after completing the term of her predecessor, John Pombe Magufuli, . Sixteen opposition candidates representing smaller parties are also on the ballot.
Tanzania has more than 37 million registered voters, a 26% increase from 2020, but that growth in voter registration is not likely to lead to more people going to the polls, analysts warn, citing apathy over the perception that Hassan will cruise to victory unchallenged.
CHADEMA has called for protests on election day. Police dispersed several protesters who gathered in the Kimara Kibo neighborhood in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam. Another group of protesters in Ubungo neighborhood set a rapid transport bus and a gas station ablaze.
Hassan has said that no protests would be allowed.
An opposition party in Tanzania’s archipelago of Zanzibar, ACT Wazalendo, alleged that early voting on Tuesday — electoral and security officials cast ballots — was marred by irregularities that included voters impersonating security officials, and the barring of party representatives by electoral officials.
The electoral commission said it had followed the law in conducting Tuesday’s early vote.
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