TANZANIAN police arrested several opposition figures and blocked demonstrations that were due to take place yesterday following last week’s disputed election.

Citing fraud and irregularities in the poll, the country’s two main opposition parties, ACT-Wazalendo and Chadema, planned to march to the national electoral commission, which returned President John Magufuli to office with 84 per cent of the vote.

Chadema alleges that ballot boxes were tampered with and that its agents were stopped from entering polling stations: the electoral commission denies the allegations and insists the elections were fair and transparent.

The parties are demanding a rerun of the poll, accusing the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi of “butchering democracy” with a result that also saw it win almost all the seats in Tanzania’s parliament.

But police swooped, ahead of the protests, to arrest Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe among others including former MP Godbless Lema, former mayor of Dar es-Salaam Isaya Mwita and former mayor of Ubungo municipality Boniface Jacob.

“We were tipped [off] that they were organising illegal demonstrations and persuading youths to go into the streets today. We did not issue a permit for anyone to hold demonstrations, so these are illegal demonstrations,” Dar es-Salaam regional police commander Lazaro Mambosasa said.