Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania | |
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Overview | |
Jurisdiction | Tanzania |
Date effective | 16 March 1977 |
System | Unitary presidential republic |
Government structure | |
Branches | Three |
Chambers | Unicameral (National Assembly) |
Executive | President |
Judiciary | Court of Appeal |
Signatories | Constituent Assembly |
Supersedes | Interim Constitution of the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar |
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The Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, also known as the Permanent Constitution, was ratified in 16 March 1977. Before the current establishment, Tanzania has had three constitutions: the Independence Constitution (1961), the Republican Constitution (1962), and the Interim Constitution of the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar (1964). [1]
After independence from the United Kingdom, Tanganyika adopted a first constitution based on the Westminster Model (with the exclusion of the Bill of Rights). This defined a Governor General who represented the Queen of Tanganyika, Elizabeth II, to be the formal head of state. The executive was led by the First Minister or the Prime Minister, chosen from the majority party. The constitution also established the independence of the judiciary.
In 1962, the Tanzanian Parliament (made solely of nominees from the Tanganyika African National Union party) formed itself into a constituent assembly and drastically revised the 1961 constitution, most notably with the establishment of a strongly presidential system. The new President of Tanzania was granted the prerogatives of both former roles, Governor General and First Minister, serving as the head of state as well as commander in chief of the armed forces. He was granted the right to designate the vice president and Ministers, and the right to dismiss the Parliament under certain circumstances. The President also inherited security-related, repressive powers that were formerly of the Governor General, with the addition of new ones; the Preventive Detention Act, for example, gave the President the right to detain any person without trial.
In 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged into the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, renamed into "United Republic of Tanzania" that same year. The constitution of the newborn nation was based on Tanganyika's 1962 Republican Constitution, modified according to the agreements between TANU and Zanzibar's majority party, the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP). These agreements had been ratified under the name "Articles of Union", and became part of the new constitution as "Acts of Union". The most notable feature of the Acts of Union was the establishment of the double government structure that is also part of Tanzania's current constitution. This structure included one government for the Union and one largely autonomous independent government for Zanzibar. Zanzibar's government included its own Parliament and President. The President of Zanzibar also served as vice president of the Union.
The constitution of 1964 was adopted ad interim. The Acts of Union themselves included directions on steps to take to elaborate a definitive constitution, to be elaborated by a constituent assembly comprising representatives of both TANU and ASP. This procedure was initiated but was later suspended.
The Interim Constitution was modified several times after its first layout. A major change was made in 1965 to formalize the one-party nature of the Tanzanian government. Coherent to the double government structure defined in 1964, the 1965 Constitution identified two government parties, TANU for the Union and ASP for Zanzibar.
In the following years, several amendments were added. Those reduced the autonomy of Zanzibar and further strengthened the one-party state. For example, an amendment in 1975 established that all the government institutions, including the Parliament, were subordinate to the party's executive committee. At that time, TANU and ASP were about to merge into the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), something that happened in 1977.
One month after CCM was founded, the Permanent Constitution was approved. This Constitution essentially confirmed the main principles of the Republic and Interim Constitutions, i.e., strong presidency, dual government structure, one-party state.
Since 1977, several amendments have been applied to the original Constitution. Many of these are related to the relationship between the united government and the Zanzibar government. In the early 1990s, President of the Union Ali Hassan Mwinyi launched a program of liberal reforms. He nominated a commission (named Nyalali Commission after its president Francis Nyalali) dedicated to preparing the transition to a multi-party political system. Based on the commission's works, several amendments were promulgated. The Eighth Amendment (1992) established that a member of any registered political party could run for any political seat; coherently, new rules were defined governing the parties' registration. The Ninth Amendment reorganized presidential elections and introduced the possibility of impeachment by the Parliament; further, it separated the functions of President and Prime Minister.
The relationships between Zanzibar and the Union were also modified over time. For example, the Eleventh Amendment established the President of Zanzibar and the Union vice president as two different, independent roles.
April 2000: The Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment
It introduced the following changes:
- Prior, a candidate needed 50% of votes in presidential elections to be declared president of the United Republic; only a simple majority is now required to be declared president.
- Before, the President had no power to nominate any body to parliament all members of parliament except the Attorney General, women in special seats and representatives of the Zanzibar House, were elected from constituencies. The Constitutional amendment allowed the President to nominate up to 10 members of parliament.
- Increased the number of special seats from women from 15%- 20%, depending on the declaration of the National Electoral Commission from time to time, with the consent of the Presidente.
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.
The politics of Tanzania takes place in a framework of a unitary presidential democratic republic, whereby the President of Tanzania is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The party system is dominated by the Chama Cha Mapinduzi. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Tanganyika was a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania, that existed from 1961 until 1964. It first gained independence from the United Kingdom on 9 December 1961 as a Commonwealth realm headed by Queen Elizabeth II before becoming a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations a year later. After signing the Articles of Union on 22 April 1964 and passing an Act of Union on 25 April, Tanganyika officially joined with the People's Republic of Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar on Union Day, 26 April 1964. The new state changed its name to the United Republic of Tanzania within a year.
The president of the United Republic of Tanzania is the head of state and head of government of Tanzania.
The Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) was the principal political party in the struggle for sovereignty in the East African state of Tanganyika. The party was formed from the Tanganyika African Association by Julius Nyerere in July 1954 when he was teaching at St. Francis' College. From 1964 the party was called the Tanzania African National Union. In January 1977 the TANU merged with the ruling party in Zanzibar, the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP), to form the current Revolutionary State Party or Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). The policy of TANU was to build and maintain a socialist state aiming towards economic self-sufficiency and to eradicate corruption and exploitation, with the major means of production and exchange under the control of the peasants and workers.
The Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) was an African nationalist and socialist Zanzibari political party formed between the mostly Shirazi Shiraz Party and the mostly African Afro Party.
The president of Zanzibar is the head of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, which is a semi-autonomous government within Tanzania. The current president is Hussein Mwinyi. The president is also the chairman of the Revolutionary Council, whose members are appointed by the president, and some of which must be selected from the House of Representatives.
The National Assembly of Tanzania and the President of Tanzania of the United Republic make up the Parliament of Tanzania. The current Speaker of the National Assembly is Tulia Ackson, who presides over a unicameral assembly of 393 members.
Aboud Jumbe Mwinyi was the second President of Zanzibar, serving from 1972 to 1984. He held several other positions, including Chairman of the Zanzibar Revolutionary Council, Vice-President of the Union of Tanzania, and the vice-chairman of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party.
The trade unions of Tanzania have a total membership of approximately 370,000. 350,000 of these belong to the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania, another 15,000 to the Zanzibar Trade Union Congress, and 2,400 are members of the Tanzania Fishing Crew and Allied Workers’ Union.
Tanganyika was a colonial territory in East Africa which was administered by the United Kingdom in various guises from 1916 until 1961. It was initially administered under a military occupation regime. From 20 July 1922, it was formalised into a League of Nations mandate under British rule. From 1946, it was administered by the UK as a United Nations trust territory.
The vice-president of Tanzania holds the second-highest political office in the United Republic of Tanzania. The vice president runs on a single ticket with the President of Tanzania, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession.
The Articles of Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar of 1964 is the main foundation of the Constitutions of the United Republic of Tanzania of 1977 and the Zanzibar Revolutionary Government of 1984. The Articles of the Union were signed on April 22, 1964, by the Founders of the Union, Julius Nyerere and Abeid Amani Karume and agreed in 11 matters which later increased to over 22 and are the source of tension and dispute between mainland Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar. See Uamsho movement. The original Articles of Union which contain both Signatures from Nyerere and Karume are yet to be found.
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.
Kingunge Ngombale–Mwiru was a long-term Tanzanian politician.
The Judiciary of Tanzania is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in Tanzania. The current judiciary bases its foundation to the constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania of 1977. Under the Constitution of Tanzania, Justices and Magistrates are independent of the government and subject only to the Constitution and the law. The country has a dual juristition system where there is a judicial structure responsible for Tanzania Mainland and another for Zanzibar. The Court of Appeal of the United Republic was established in 1979 as the final appellate judicial body with jurisdiction over the entire union.
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.