GOVERNMENT
Tanzania's president and National Assembly members are elected concurrently by direct popular vote for 5-year terms. The president appoints a prime minister who serves as the government's leader in the National Assembly. The president selects his cabinet from among National Assembly members. The Constitution also empowers him to nominate 10 non-elected members of Parliament, who also are eligible to become cabinet members. Elections for president and all National Assembly seats were held in December 2005.
The unicameral National Assembly has up to 325 members: the Attorney General, the Speaker, five members elected from the Zanzibar House of Representatives to participate in the Parliament, 75 special women's seats apportioned among the political parties based on their election results, 233 constituents seats from the mainland, and up to 10 members nominated by the president. At present, the president has nominated six members and the Speaker was elected to a constituents seat, so there are 320 Members of Parliament. The ruling party, CCM, holds about 82% of the seats in the Assembly. Laws passed by the National Assembly are valid for Zanzibar only in specifically designated union matters.
Zanzibar's House of Representatives has jurisdiction over all non-union matters. There are currently 81 members in the House of Representatives in Zanzibar: 50 elected by the people, 10 appointed by the president of Zanzibar, 5 ex officio members, an attorney general appointed by the president, and 15 special seats allocated to women. Ostensibly, Zanzibar's House of Representatives can make laws for Zanzibar without the approval of the union government as long as it does not involve union-designated matters. The terms of office for Zanzibar's president and House of Representatives also are 5 years. The semiautonomous relationship between Zanzibar and the union is a relatively unique system of government.
Tanzania has a five-level judiciary combining the jurisdictions of tribal, Islamic, and British common law. Appeal is from the primary courts through the district courts, resident magistrate courts, to the high courts, and Court of Appeals. Judges are appointed by the Chief Justice, except those for the Court of Appeals and the High Court who are appointed by the president. The Zanzibari court system parallels the legal system of the union, and all cases tried in Zanzibari courts, except for those involving constitutional issues and Islamic law, can be appealed to the Court of Appeals of the union. A commercial court was established in September 1999 as a division of the High Court.
For administrative
purposes, Tanzania is divided into 26 regions--21 on the mainland,
3 on Zanzibar, and 2 on Pemba. Ninety-nine district councils have
been created to further increase local authority. These districts
are also now referred to as local government authorities. Currently
there are 114 councils operating in 99 districts, 22 are urban
and 92 are rural. The 22 urban units are classified further as
city (Dar es Salaam and Mwanza), municipal (Arusha, Dodoma, Iringa,
Kilimanjaro, Mbeya, Morogoro, Shinyanga, Tabora, and Tanga), and
town councils (the remaining 11 communities).
POLITICAL
CONDITIONS
From independence in 1961 until the mid-1980s, Tanzania was a
one-party state, with a socialist model of economic development.
Beginning in the mid-1980s, under the administration of President
Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Tanzania undertook a number of political and
economic reforms. In January and February 1992, the government
decided to adopt multiparty democracy. Legal and constitutional
changes led to the registration of 11 political parties. Two parliamentary
by-elections (won by CCM) in early 1994 were the first-ever multiparty
elections in Tanzanian history.
In
October 2000, Tanzania held its second multi-party general elections.
The ruling CCM party's candidate, Benjamin W. Mkapa, defeated
his three main rivals, winning the presidential election with
71% of the vote. In the parliamentary elections, CCM won 202 of
the 232 elected seats. In the Zanzibar presidential election,
Abeid Amani Karume, the son of former President Abeid Karume,
defeated CUF candidate Seif Sharif Hamad. The election was marred
by irregularities, especially on Zanzibar, and subsequent political
violence claimed at least 23 lives in January 2001, mostly on
Pemba island. Also, 16 CUF members were expelled from the Union
Parliament after boycotting the legislature to protest the Zanzibar
election results.
In October 2001, the CCM and the CUF parties signed a reconciliation agreement which called for electoral reforms on Zanzibar and set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the deaths that occurred in January 2001 on Pemba. The agreement also led to the presidential appointment of an additional CUF official to become a member of the Union Parliament. Changes to the Zanzibar Constitution in April 2002 allowed both the CCM and CUF parties to nominate members to the Zanzibar Electoral Commission. In May 2003, the Zanzibar Electoral Commission conducted by-elections to fill vacant seats in the parliament, including those seats vacated by the CUF boycott. Observers considered these by-elections, the first major test of the reconciliation agreement, to be free, fair, and peaceful.
In October 2005, presidential and parliamentary elections were scheduled to take place. However, the death of an opposition vice presidential candidate forced a postponement until December. Zanzibari presidential elections went forward as scheduled. Although there were many administrative improvements over the 2000 elections in Zanzibar, the poll was marred by violence and intimidation. Abeid Amani Karume edged out Seif Sharif Hamad 53% to 46% in an election widely deemed to have had serious irregularities by international observers. In contrast, the December 2005 mainland poll proceeded with few if any problems, and the popular Kikwete won by receiving over 80% of the vote. The ruling CCM party also picked up additional parliamentary seats, leaving the opposition parties fractured and marginalized.
In February 2008, President Kikwete dissolved his cabinet after then-Prime Minister Edward Lowassa and two ministers resigned. Prime Minister Lowassa offered his resignation after a parliamentary select committee report alleged Lowassa used undue influence to help secure a major energy contract for a company that had no prior experience in the energy sector and ended up providing none of the promised energy. President Kikwete quickly nominated and the National Assembly approved a new cabinet. Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda was selected as the new Prime Minister.
President Kikwete, Vice President Ali Mohamed Shein, Prime Minister Edward Lowassa, and National Assembly members will serve until the next general elections, which have been set for 2010. Similarly, Zanzibar President Karume and members of the Zanzibar House of Representatives also will complete their terms of office in 2010.
In 2001, the East African Community (EAC)--formerly a customs union in 1967
consisting of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda--was revived, and a new treaty was
signed that paves the way for an economic and political union of the three
countries. In July 2007, Rwanda and Burundi joined the EAC as full members.
Principal
Government Officials
President--Jakaya Kikwete
Vice President--Dr. Ali Mohamed Shein
Prime Minister--Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda
President of Zanzibar--Amani Abeid Karume
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Bernard Membe
Ambassador to the United States--Ombeni Sefue
Tanzania
maintains an embassy
in the United States at 2139 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
(tel. 202-939-6125.)
Type:
Republic.
Independence: Tanganyika 1961, Zanzibar 1963.
Union formed 1964.
Constitution: 1982.
Branches: Executive--president (chief of state
and commander in chief), vice president, and prime minister. Legislative--unicameral
National Assembly (for the Union), House of Representatives (for
Zanzibar only). Judicial--Mainland: Court of Appeals, High Courts,
Resident Magistrate Courts, district courts, and primary courts;
Zanzibar: High Court, people's district courts, kadhis court (Islamic
courts).
Political parties: 1. Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM),
2. The Civic United Front (CUF), 3. Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo
(CHADEMA), 4. Union for Multiparty Democracy (UMD), 5. National
Convention for Construction and Reform (NCCR-Mageuzi), 6. National
League for Democracy (NLD), 7. National Reconstruction for Alliance
(NRA) 8. Tanzania Democratic Alliance Party (TADEA), 9. Tanzania
Labour Party (TLP), 10. United Democratic Party (UDP), 11. Demokrasia
Makini (MAKINI), 12. United Peoples’ Democratic Party (UPDP),
13. Chama cha Haki na Ustawi (CHAUSTA), 14. The Forum for Restoration
of Democracy (FORD), 15. Democratic Party (DP), 16. Progressive
Party of Tanzania (PPT-Maendeleo), 17. Jahazi Asilia.
Suffrage: Universal at 18.
Administrative
subdivisions: 26 regions (21 on mainland, 3 on Zanzibar,
2 on Pemba).
Flag: Diagonal yellow-edged
black band from lower left to upper right; green field at upper
left, blue field at lower right.
