By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has announced the appointment of her longtime loyalist, Mwigulu Nchemba as Prime Minister after a disputed presidential poll in the East African country in which hundreds of persons have been reported dead following post-election violence.
The parliament in a near-unanimous vote on Thursday backed the appointment of Nchemba a former finance minister.
Nchemba, who also served in the cabinet of Hassan’s predecessor John Magufuli, said he would work diligently in his new post.
He has been a member of parliament since 2010 and also previously held the post of deputy secretary-general of Hassan’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party.
Hassan was declared the landslide winner of the October 29 election but opposition has accused her of rigging, a development it says triggered unrest over the exclusion of her main challengers.
She has been in office since 2021 when Magufuli died. She has dismissed criticism of her human rights record and defended the fairness of the election.
The U.N. Human Rights Office has said it believes hundreds of people were killed in protests, while the main opposition party and some human rights activists have said security forces killed more than 1,000 people.
The government has said the opposition’s death toll is exaggerated but has not released its own data.
