Policy of Tanzania

The Tanzania is a presidential République federal multi-party with mode, where the president is at the same time Head of the State and chief of the government. The executive power is with the hands of the government while the legislative power is shared between the government and the Parliament. The judicial power is independent as well of the executive as legislature. The principal party is the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Left official revolutionist).

Political context

Tanzania is officially independent since the December 9th 1961. The following year, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, socialist leader of the African National union of Tanganyika, was elected president. Called Mwalimu , word Swahili which means Professor , he intended to give the priority to education and teaching.

The country lived under a socialist system monopartite until the middle of the years 1980. The president Ali Hassan Mwinyi started a series of economic reforms and policies. The multi-party system was introduced with the beginning of the year 1992, which saw the inscription of eleven new political trainings. In 1994, Tanzania knew its first multi-party elections, gained by the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).

The presidential election of October 2000 saw the candidate of the CCM, Benjamin Mkapa, to overcome his three principal rivals with 71% of the votes. The CCM obtained then 202 of the 232 seats of the Parliament. Abeid Amani Karume, wire of the former president Abeid Karume, gained the election presidential of Zanzibar against Seif Sharif Hamad, candidate of the civic Front unified (FCU). The elections were sullied with irregularities and the riots which followed made 23 dead, mainly on the island of Pemba. Sixteen members of the FCU were excluded from the Parliament after having boycotted the sessions, in protest against the result of the elections of Zanzibar.

In October 2001, the CCM and the FCU signed an agreement calling of new electoral reforms and establishing a board of inquiry charged to make all the light on deaths of January 2001 in Pemba. The agreement also mentioned the nomination by the president of a member of the FCU at the Parliament. The modifications of the constitutions occurred in April 2002 allowed the CCM and the FCU to name each one the members of the electoral commission of Zanzibar. In May 2003, the latter organized complementary elections to allot the seats remained vacant following the boycott of the FCU. The observers qualified these elections, first major test of the agreement of reconciliation between the two parties, of free and regular.

Executive power

The president is elected by the universal direct suffrage for a five years mandate and names the Prime Minister, who represents the government near the Parliament. The president names the ministers, selected among the members of the Parliament. The constitution also enables him to name 10 members not elected at the Parliament, who can also exert a load of minister.

Legislative power

The Parliament monocaméral account 274 seats, with which 232 are provided by the universal direct suffrage, 37 reserved for women named by the president and 5 with members of the Parliament of Zanzibar. The Parliament is qualified to adopt the laws which apply to the totality of the United Republic of Tanzania, like with the continental part. Zanzibar has its own Parliament, equipped with 50 seats provided by the universal direct suffrage every five years.

The members of the Tanzanian Parliament are elected by the universal direct suffrage for a five years mandate. The CCM hold the majority of the seats today.

Zanzibar has a legislative competence relating to all the subjects which are not expressly allotted to the United Republic of Tanzania. In addition to the 50 elected members, it counts to 10 named members not president de Zanzibar, 5 members ex-officio and a prosecuting attorney named by the president. In May 2002, the government changed the number of reserved seats to the women from 10 to 15, which changed the full number of members of Parliament to 81. The semi-autonomy which Zanzibar compared to the Union enjoys is a relatively single political system.

Political parties and elections

See also: Political parties of Tanzania, Elections in Tanzania

Judicial power

Tanzania is equipped with a legal system on five levels combining the tribal, Islamic institutions and of the Common law. The call is devolutionary, from the county courts towards the courts of districts, then the lectures, the high court, and finally the Court of Appeal. The judges are named by the judge as a chief, except for the judges of the high court and the Court of Appeal, which are named by the president. The legal system of Zanzibar is similar and all the cases judged by the courts of the island, except those which concern the constitutional law and the Islamic law, can be the subject of a recourse near the Court of Appeal of the union.

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