Hundreds protested on Wednesday in Tanzania’s largest city, tearing down banners of President Samia Suluhu Hassan and burning a police station, as the East African country went to the polls in elections where the main challengers have either been jailed or barred from standing.

Despite heavy security in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, with tanks stationed around key junctions, an AFP journalist said hundreds of young people took to the streets, singing: “We want our country back”.

A group burned down a police station along Nelson Mandela Road, the main road from the city’s port, the journalist said.

Police fired tear gas but were forced to retreat as protesters pelted them with stones, they added, while a military vehicle passed through the crowd but appeared to take no action aga

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