Millions of Tanzanians have been heading to polling stations across the country on Wednesday to elect a new president for the next five years.
Long queues stretching out for hundreds of metres were witnessed in the capital Dodoma and other cities across Tanzania where incumbent John Pembe Magufuli of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party is bidding for a second five-year term.
The CCM has been in power in Tanzania since 1961.
Looking to break this dominance is the opposition CHADEMA party who are fielding Tundu Lissu as Magufuli’s main challenger among 13 other candidates.
Lissu who survived an assassination attempt in 2017 returned to Tanzania two months ago to challenge Magufuli for the presidency.
Over 29 million people have been registered for the polls, a first-past-the-post where the candidate with the most votes wins the presidency.
The results are expected within the next three days.
The days leading up to the elections were marred by violence as opposition supporters clashed with police, alleging manipulation and deliberately interfering with the internet to block the free flow of information before and during the vote.
Once the election outcome is declared by the electoral commission, it cannot be challenged in any court of law in Tanzania.
Foreign poll observers from the European Union have not been invited to monitor the polls.
CHADEMA chairman Freeman Mbowe tweeted that his life is in danger after a heavily armed group allegedly linked to the police raided his hotel and arrested two of his bodyguards.
While the United Nations had accused Magufuli gagging the media, stifling dissent and making misleading claims about the coronavirus, his supporters say he is doing enough to stamp out corruption and set the economy in a path to unprecedented growth.
His crusade against graft has earned him the nickname “the Bulldozer”.
WN/as/APA