Click to expand Image A Tanzanian police water cannon shoots water at opposition party supporters during a protest in Kigoma, Tanzania, on October 30, 2025, a day after Tanzania's presidential and legislative elections. © 2025 Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images (Nairobi) – The authorities in Tanzania responded to widespread protests following the October 29 elections with lethal force and other abuses, Human Rights Watch said today. On November 1, Tanzania’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission, announced that the incumbent president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, won the election with 97.66 percent of the vote. She was sworn in on November 3 for a second term at a ceremony closed to the public amid continuing protests.The protests, some of which were violent, erupted on election day and have continued over three days in Dar es Salaam and other cities. Police responded with tear gas and live ammunition to disperse crowds. The government imposed nationwide internet restrictions on October 29, and multiple internet monitoring organizations confirmed that internet connectivity had been disrupted. Reports on the evening of November 3 indicate that some internet access has been restored but that restrictions on social media and messaging platforms persist.“The Tanzanian authorities’ violent and repressive response to election-related protests further undermines the credibility of the electoral process,” said Oryem Nyeko, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The government has a responsibility to maintain security, but it needs to respect rights and ensure that all those responsible for violence are investigated and appropriately prosecuted.”In October, Human Rights Watch reported that the Tanzanian government intensified political repression, suppressed political opposition and critics of the ruling party, stifled the media, and failed to ensure the electoral commission’s independence in the lead up to the elections.Tanzania’s main opposition party, Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema), had urged its supporters not to participate in the elections. An opposition party official and a resident of Dar es Salaam told Human Rights Watch that police officers and individuals in civilian clothes shot and killed protesters and passers-by on election day and in the two days that followed.John Kitoka, the director of foreign and diaspora affairs of Chadema, said that the party had collected reports of up to 1,000 people killed by police and unidentified security force personnel in the aftermath of the elections in eight of Tanzania’s 31 regions.Human Rights Watch has not been able to confirm these numbers but regional and international bodies such as the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Southern African Development Community, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the European Union have raised concerns in their public statements about the large number of fatalities.A resident of Dar es Salaam’s Temeke district told Human Rights Watch via telephone that on October 30 at around 3:30 p.m., her neighbor, who was not participating in the protests, was shot and killed outside his home by a man that witnesses said was wearing civilian clothes.From the evening of October 29 until November 3, the government imposed a 24-hour lockdown, ordering all residents to stay at home. A resident of Dar es Salaam told Human Rights Watch that shops were closed for three days after election day but were allowed to open briefly on November 2. The resident said the lockdown prevented them from leaving their homes to buy food and get money from the bank.The lockdown prevented the media from being able to report on the elections and the ensuing protests. Two Tanzania-based journalists said they were unable to carry out reporting on the ongoing events because of the lockdown.The authorities appear to have blocked foreign journalists from covering the elections by failing in some instances to respond to accreditation applications. The International Press Association of East Africa said it does not know of any journalists working for international media who were accredited to travel to the mainland to cover the elections.Agence France-Presse reported on October 24 that its journalists, despite being accredited, were denied access to grounds in Stone Town, Zanzibar, where President Hassan was due to hold a rally.One journalist told Human Rights Watch that he applied for accreditation to cover the election on mainland Tanzania via an online portal on the election commission’s website but did not receive any response. He followed up with phone calls to the commission and was told by a high-ranking official that they would return his call, but they did not.The Tanzanian authorities should immediately end the use of excessive and lethal force against protests, and take steps to ensure accountability for allegations of election-related killings, beatings, and assaults by security forces, and hold those responsible accountable, Human Rights Watch said.Tanzania is obligated to respect everyone’s rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association under international human rights law and its constitution. Tanzania security forces should abide by the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which require law enforcement officials to apply nonviolent means and to use force only when strictly unavoidable to protect life. The principles also require governments to ensure that arbitrary or abusive use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials is punished as a criminal offense under national law.Under international human rights law, Tanzanian authorities should refrain from imposing internet shutdowns, disruptions, or blocking access to websites and platforms including before, during, and after elections. The African Commission stated that the recent shutdown in Tanzania violates article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which guarantees the rights to freedom of expression and access to information. It called on the Tanzanian government to respect and protect the rights to freedom of expression and access to information.“Street demonstrations against the conduct of elections should not be used as a pretext for violating people’s rights,” Nyeko said. “The authorities are obligated to promote and protect the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and fully restore access to the internet.”