The modern-day African Great Lakes state of Tanzania dates formally from 1964, when it was formed out of the union of the much larger mainland territory of Tanganyika and the coastal archipelago of Zanzibar. The former was a colony and part of German East Africa from the 1880s to 1919 when, under the League of Nations, it became a British mandate. It served as a British military outpost during World War II, providing financial help, munitions, and soldiers. In 1947, Tanganyika became a United Nations Trust Territory under British administration, a status it kept until its independence in 1961. The island of Zanzibar thrived as a trading hub, successively controlled by the Portuguese, the Sultanate of Oman, and then as a British protectorate by the end of the nineteenth century.
Zanzibar is an insular semi-autonomous region which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25–50 km (16–31 mi) off the coast of the African mainland, and consists of many small islands and two large ones: Unguja and Pemba Island. The capital is Zanzibar City, located on the island of Unguja. Its historic centre, Stone Town, is a World Heritage Site.
Politics in Austria reflects the dynamics of competition among multiple political parties, which led to the formation of a Conservative-Green coalition government for the first time in January 2020, following the snap elections of 29 September 2019, and the election of a former Green Party leader to the presidency in 2016.
Seif Sharif Hamad was a Tanzanian politician who served as the First Vice President of Zanzibar and as Party Chairman of ACT Wazalendo.
Amani Abeid Karume is a Tanzanian politician, the former president of Zanzibar. He held the office from 8 November 2000 to 3 November 2010. He is the son of Zanzibar's first president, Abeid Karume, and a member of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party.
The Zanzibar House of Representatives is the unicameral, subnational legislature of the autonomous islands of Zanzibar in Tanzania.
People have lived in Zanzibar for 20,000 years. History properly starts when the islands became a base for traders voyaging between the African Great Lakes, the Somali Peninsula, the Arabian peninsula, Iran, and the Indian subcontinent. Unguja offered a protected and defensible harbour, so although the archipelago had few products of value, Omanis and Yemenis settled in what became Zanzibar City as a convenient point from which to trade with towns on the Swahili Coast. They established garrisons on the islands and built the first mosques in the African Great Lakes Region.
Christianity is the largest religion in Tanzania, with a substantial Muslim minority. Smaller populations of Animists, practitioners of other faiths, and religiously unaffiliated people are also present.
A referendum on establishing a national unity government after the Tanzanian October 2010 elections was held in Zanzibar on 31 July 2010. The proposal was approved, and the losing party in the elections was subsequently allowed to nominate the First Vice President.
The Tanzanian Constitutional Review Commission is the national commission established as per the Constitutional Review Act of 2011 for the collection of public opinion on the review of the Constitution of Tanzania and its validation via a referendum. Key aspects of the review were legal frameworks for the state of the union, the presidency and the contentious aspect of human rights, which were included in an amendment after public protests. On 6 April 2012 President Jakaya Kikwete appointed the former Attorney General and Prime Minister Joseph Warioba as its chairman and the former Chief Justice Augustino Ramadhani as its vice chairman. The Commission was expected to complete its task by October 2013, with an estimated cost of TSh 40 billion during the 2012/13 fiscal year.
The Chama Cha Mapinduzi is the dominant ruling party in Tanzania and the second longest-ruling party in Africa, only after the True Whig Party of Liberia. It was formed in 1977, following the merger of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP), which were the sole operating parties in mainland Tanzania and the semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar respectively.
Samia Suluhu Hassan is a Tanzanian politician who has served as president of Tanzania since 19 March 2021. She is the first woman to serve in the position. She previously served as vice-president of Tanzania from 2015 to 2021, from which she ascended to the presidency following the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli.
Hussein Ali Mwinyi is the 8th president of Zanzibar. The son of former Tanzanian president Ali Hasan Mwinyi, he is a member of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) political party.
General elections were held in Tanzania on 25 October 2015. Voters elected the president, members of Parliament, and local government councillors. By convention, the election was held on the last Sunday of October and was supervised by the National Electoral Commission (NEC). Political campaigns commenced on 22 August and ceased a day before the polling day.
Freedom of religion in Tanzania refers to the extent to which people in Tanzania are freely able to practice their religious beliefs, taking into account both government policies and societal attitudes toward religious groups.
Zanzibari independence is a political ambition of some political parties, advocacy groups, and individuals of Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous region territory within Tanzania, to become an independent sovereign state.
General elections were held in Zanzibar on 28 October 2020 alongside the Tanzanian general elections to elect the President and National Assembly of the Semi-autonomous state of Zanzibar. Voters elect the president, Zanzibar House of Representatives and local government councillors. By convention, the election was held on the last Wednesday of October and is supervised by the Zanzibar Election Commission.
General elections were held in Zanzibar on 20 March 2016. The 2016 election was conducted as a re-run of the annulled 2015 Zanzibari general election. Only the Zanzibari President, Zanzibar House of Representatives and local legislative elections were part of the re-run.
The vice president of Zanzibar is a political position in Zanzibar. The vice presidency was created by the 2010 amendments made to the Zanzibar Constitution. First Vice President is supposed to come from a political party other than that of the President of Zanzibar. According to the Constitution, the Second Vice President is supposed to be a member of the Zanzibar House of Representatives, and must come from the same political party as the President.
