Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has won a landslide election victory, official results revealed on Saturday.
The final count showed that Hassan's Revolution Party (Chama Cha Mapinduzi: CCM) won 97.66 percent of the vote.
A swearing-in ceremony for her five-year term would take place on Saturday, state TV said.
The result, announced by the electoral commission on state television, is likely to increase the concerns of opposition groups who said the election was not a contest but a coronation after Hassan's two main rivals were barred or prevented from running.
Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn
Tundu Lissu, leader of the Chadema opposition group, has been jailed for months, charged with treason after he called for electoral reforms that he said were a prerequisite for free and fair elections. Another opposition figure, Luhaga Mpina of the ACT-Wazalendo group, was barred from running.
Hassan, who is the first women to be president in Tanzania, faced 16 candidates from smaller parties.
Chadema says hundreds of people have been killed by security forces since protests broke out on election day on Wednesday.
Tension high in Tanzania ahead of opposition leader's 'treason' trial
Despite a heavy security presence, election day descended into chaos as crowds took to the streets across the country, tearing down posters of Hassan and attacking police and polling stations, leading to an internet shutdown and curfew.
A Chadema spokesman told the French news agency AFP on Friday that "around 700" people had been killed, based on figures gathered from a network checking hospitals and health clinics.
A security source and diplomat in Dar es Salaam both told AFP that deaths were "in the hundreds".
Hassan, 65, has not made any public statement since the unrest began.
Silencing dissent in Tanzania, reckoning with genocide in Namibia
She rose to the top job from vice-president on the sudden death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, in 2021.
Her government denies using "excessive force" but has blocked the internet and imposed a tight lockdown and curfew nationwide.
News websites have not been updated since early Wednesday and journalists are not allowed to operate freely in the country.
UN chief Antonio Guterres is "deeply concerned" about the situation in Tanzania, "including reports of deaths and injuries during the demonstrations", his spokesman said in a statement.
Much public anger has been directed at Hassan's son, Abdul Halim Hafidh Ameir, accused of overseeing the crackdown.
Tanzanian opposition leader to represent himself in court over treason charges
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".
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Foreign Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo said on 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. news channel. "I've not seen these 700 anywhere ... There's no number until now of any protesters killed," he said.
The United Nations said "credible reports" indicated 10 dead, in the first information released by an international body, while Amnesty International said it had information of at least 100 killed.
The UN human rights office also said it had received credible reports of deaths in the economic capital Dar es Salaam, in Shinyanga in the northwest, and Morogoro in the east, with security forces firing live ammunition and tear gas to disperse protesters.
"We are alarmed by the deaths and injuries that have occurred in the ongoing election-related protests in Tanzania," office spokesman Seif Magango told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Nairobi.
(With newswires)
