Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has won re-election with a landslide victory in a poll that the opposition has described as fraudulent.
Tundu Lissu of the Party for Democracy and Progress, commonly known as Chadema, alleged that his party’s agents were prevented from entering polling stations during Wednesday’s election.
The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has dismissed the claims of fraud.
In its final results, the NEC said the president took 84% of the vote, while Mr Lissu received 13%.
The East African Community observer mission led by former president of Burundi Sylvestre Ntibatunganya has endorsed the conduct of the poll saying it was conducted in a regular manner.
The mission called for parties that have concerns to seek legal redress.
On Thursday, Mr Lissu, who was the candidate for Chadema, said he would not accept the results saying the vote was “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.”
He alleged that ballot boxes were tampered with while his party representatives were not present.
The US embassy in Dar es Salaam said that “irregularities and the overwhelming margins of victory raise serious doubts about the credibility of the results… as well as concerns about the government of Tanzania’s commitment to democratic values”.
The head of the National Electoral Commission, Semistocles Kaijage, said allegations of fake ballot papers were unsubstantiated.
As well as taking part in the Tanzanian elections, voters on the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar were also electing their own president, and the CCM candidate Hussein Mwinyi has been declared the winner with 76% of the votes.
His main rival, Maalim Seif Sharif of ACT-Wazalendo, got 19% – his biggest defeat in any presidential election he has taken part in.
On Thursday, Mr Seif Sharif was arrested shortly after saying that the polls had been rigged and calling for mass protests. He was later released on bail.
