About 700 people have been killed in the election crisis that broke out in Tanzania on Wednesday, says the Chadema opposition party.

Over 30 million Tanzanians on Wednesday cast their votes in an election in which major opposition candidates were barred from participating.

However, violence broke out during the election as protesters clashed with security operatives.

John Kitoka, a spokesperson for the Chadema opposition party, on Friday told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that hundreds had been killed.

“As we speak the figure for deaths in Dar (es Salaam) is around 350 and for Mwanza it is 200-plus. Added to figures from other places around the country, the overall figure is around 700,” Mr Kitoka said. “The death toll could be much higher.”

The United Nations has also expressed concern over the election violence rocking Tanzania.

“We are alarmed by the deaths and injuries that have occurred in the ongoing election-related protests in Tanzania. Reports we have received indicate that at least 10 people were killed,” UN human rights office spokesperson Seif Magango said, per Reuters report.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Amnesty International said authorities must investigate police use of force against election-day protesters.

Before the election, the human rights organisation condemned widespread arrests, torture, killings, and the disqualification of opposition candidates ahead of the general elections of October 29.

Amnesty International said “unopposed, unchecked, unjust ‘wave of terror’ sweeps” through the country ahead of the elections, lamenting a “deepening human rights crisis ahead of its October 2025 general elections.”

It said, “Authorities have intensified the use of repressive laws to silence dissent, targeting journalists, civil society, human rights defenders, and opposition voices.”

Tanzania’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had first confirmed 17 presidential candidates, including President Samia Suluhu Hassan, before disqualifying other strong opposition candidates.