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Tanzania's President John Magufuli at a ceremony (2019)
Photo: STRINGER / AFP
John Magufuli remains in power in Tanzania.
The incumbent president has taken the oath of office for a second five-year term.
However, Magufuli's choice is controversial.
The opposition considers them to have been manipulated, Magufuli's opponents do not recognize the result and called for peaceful protests.
Magufuli won the election on October 28, according to official figures, with 84 percent of the vote.
In the days following the election, the police arrested several opposition politicians for allegedly organizing illegal demonstrations.
Among those arrested was Tundu Lissu, the president's greatest challenger.
He got 13 percent of the vote.
Lissu is now apparently trying to leave the country.
The head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Tanzania told SPIEGEL that Lissu was trying to travel to Belgium for safety.
Belgian authorities are waiting for the Tanzanian side to agree that the opposition may leave the country.
Lissu has already been in Belgium after being badly shot in an attack in 2017.
After four months in a hospital in Nairobi, he was treated for eleven more months in the University Hospital of Leuven.
Lissu blamed Magufuli for the attack.
Magufuli has ruled Tanzania since 2015. He is popular with his supporters because of his tough stance against corruption and because of his promises of major infrastructure projects.
Opposition and human rights activists condemn the increasing restrictions on freedom of the press and freedom of expression under his leadership, as well as his handling of educational issues and the corona pandemic.
Tanzania has not officially registered any corona diseases since May.
Among other things, Magufuli suggested praying against the pandemic.
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