Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan condemned protests around the election in which she was declared winner on Saturday with almost 98 percent of the vote, while the opposition said hundreds have been killed by security forces.

The electoral commission said Hassan won 97.66 percent of the vote, with turnout at 87 percent, despite reports from AFP journalists and other observers that polling stations were largely empty.

Hassan, 65, had sought to cement her position and silence critics in her party with an emphatic victory, helped by the main opposition candidates being either jailed or disqualified.

But a heavy crackdown and the lack of options sparked mass protests around the country.

“The government strongly condemns and denounces those incidents,” said Hassan as she accepted a winner’s certificate on state television.

“When it comes to the national security… there is no alternative but to employ all defence measures.”

The main opposition party, Chadema, told AFP “no less than 800 people” have been killed by security forces since Wednesday.

A security source and a diplomat in Dar es Salaam both told AFP that deaths were “in the hundreds”, but verifying information remained difficult as an internet blackout was still in place Saturday.

The election result is a “mockery of the democratic process”, Chadema spokesman John Kitoka told AFP, calling for a “fresh election”.

“We are going to announce our reaction that could also include calling for national protests,” he added.

Father Charles Kitima, secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference in Dar es Salaam said Tanzania has become a “totalitarian regime”.

“It’s a very sad event. For the first time in our country, we are experiencing the mass killing of people protesting,” he told AFP by phone.

The African Union chair Mahmoud Ali Youssouf congratulated Hassan in a statement, but said he “deeply regrets the loss of human life”.

Tourists have been stranded by cancelled flights, and the main port at Dar es Salaam — a major economic lifeline for the country — was shuttered, according to data from tracker Vessel Finder and Dutch shipping firm C. Steinweg.

There were reports Saturday of spiking food prices as shops ran low on supplies, petrol stations were closed and public transport halted.

“I have been staying in the mosque since Wednesday when the violence erupted,” Mohamed Rajab, a 52-year-old in Dar es Salaam, told AFP.

“There is no transport. I’m not sure when I’m going back home.”

– ‘Wave of terror’ –

Hassan was elevated from vice-president on the sudden death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, in 2021.

Rights groups say she oversaw a “wave of terror” in the east African nation ahead of the vote, including a string of high-profile abductions that escalated in the final days.

Chadema was barred from taking part in the election and its leader put on trial for treason.

Despite a heavy security presence, election day descended into chaos as crowds took to the streets across the country, tearing down her posters and attacking police and polling stations, leading to an internet shutdown and curfew.

Hassan’s government denies using “excessive force”.

But UN chief Antonio Guterres was “deeply concerned” about the situation in Tanzania, “including reports of deaths and injuries during the demonstrations”, according to his spokesman.

Much public anger has been directed at Hassan’s son, Abdul Halim Hafidh Ameir, accused of overseeing the pre-election crackdown.

There have been unconfirmed reports of the army siding with protesters in some places, but army chief Jacob Mkunda came out strongly on Hassan’s side on Thursday, calling the protesters “criminals”.

Foreign Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo said Friday that his government had “no figures” on any dead.

“Currently, no excessive force has been used,” he said in an interview with Al Jazeera. “There’s no number until now of any protesters killed.”

str-er/yad