John Magufuli re-elected Tanzania's president
Tanzanian President John Magufuli.
Tanzania's President John Pombe Magufuli has been re-elected for the second term, the country's National Electoral Commission has announced.
In the results announced by National Electoral Commission chairman Judge Semitocles Kaijage in Dar es salaam on Friday, President Magufuli emerged the winner with 12,516, 252 of the total votes cast in the polls held on October 28.
His closest contender Tundu Lisu garnered 1,933,271 of the total voted cast.
President Magufuli will be awarded the winner's certificate on November 1 in Dodoma at the National Electoral Commission's headquarters. With the landslide victory in the October 28 polls, the president will go into his second term after improving his 2015 victory margin by 3,633,317 votes.
In 2015, he won the presidential poll by 58.46 percent of the total votes cast after garnering 882935 votes. He beat his closest challenger Edward Lowassa who garnered 6,072,848 votes.
On Thursday, Tanzania's main opposition presidential candidate Lissu rejected the results of the vote, terming it a fraud.
At a press conference in Dar es Salaam, Lissu, who ran on the Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema), said the figures being announced by the National Electoral Commission could not be verified.
"We do not recognise what happened yesterday (Wednesday) … because it was marred by irregularities in all stages.
Lissu said his party would not accept any results from the polls and called on the masses to "take the matter in their own hands" by engaging in peaceful demonstrations.
Preliminary results showed incumbent John Magufuli was ahead of the pack as stations kept sending in their data. In some stations, Magufuli got nearly five times the vote compared to the total garnered by all the other 14 presidential contenders.
But Chadema and several other opposition politicians said the vote had been rigged in favour of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi.
Zitto Kabwe, the party leader of ACT-Wazalendo, another opposition party, said the elections had confirmed Tanzania's growth into a dictatorship.
