The coordination director in Zanzibar’s Office of the Second Prime Minister, Mr Ahmad Kassim Haji, presents the office’s views on the envisaged Constitution to the Katiba Review team at the Karimjee hall in Dar es Salaam yesterday. With him are his collegues. Photo/Constitution Review Team
By Bernard Lugongo, The Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. The Zanzibar Second Vice President Office wants the Isles President to have more clout on Union government matters as a way to make the merger of the two partners to the United Republic of Tanzania more meaningful.
The old system that made the President of Zanzibar the automatic First Vice President of the United Republic or such similar arrangement should be reconsidered to make the Isles President more substantively involved in issues that concern the Mainland, the permanent secretary in Zanzibar Second VPO, Dr Khalid Mohamed, told the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) yesterday.
The current two tier-union structure gives the President of Tanzania authority on many major issues involving defence, currency, diplomacy and foreign relations over the whole of Tanzania.
But the President of Zanzibar has only authority over domestic issues pertaining to Unguja and Pemba. He, however, has no authority whatsoever, on matters pertaining to the Union.
“Our suggestion is that under the new Constitution, the Zanzibar President should be given clout in matters pertaining to the Union like it used to be during the earlier phase of the unification whereby the Isles leader was effectively the second in-command of the United Republic,” Dr Mohamed briefed reporters following the Zanzibar Second VPO chiefs encounter with the CRC.
Dr Mohamed observed that the agreement between founder presidents Julius Nyerere and Abeid Amani Karume on the position of the Isles leader was most plausible and should be revisited as the country pursues the rewriting of the Constitution.
“In their agreement, among other things, the founding architects of the Union agreed that Mwalium Nyerere be President of the United Republic of Tanzania and Sheikh Karume be the First Vice President of the same while also serving as the President of Zanzibar,” he said.
But all this changed as Tanzania prepared to adopt multiparty politics in the early 1990s.
Multiparty democracy system necessitated major constitutional amendments. These amendments addressed the issue of Vice President and saw the introduction of the system of running mate. This meant that the President of Zanzibar ceased being an automatic vice president of the Union much as he became a member of the Union Cabinet.
The Eleventh Constitutional Amendment addressed the issue of vice president, following the report of the Bomani Committee.
Article 47(2) of the Constitution of United Republic of Tanzania stipulates that, the vice president shall be elected in the same general election with the president who is a nominee of his/her political party. That is, when a presidential candidate wins an election, his/her running mate becomes the vice president automatically.
Also Article 47(3) of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania provides that, when the presidential candidate is from one side of the Union then the vice president shall be appointed from the partner state.
These constitutional amendments eliminated the posts of first and second vice president.
Following the new arrangement, the Constitution was further amended to establish the office of the vice president.
Dr Mohamed said that in addition to introducing powers for the President of Zanzibar in the Union context, the new Constitution should serve as an opportunity to address all challenges facing the 49-year-old unity.
In order to make it a better success, the two partners should meet and candidly identify areas that would be under the Union and otherwise as a way of strengthening the unity.
He also proposed that there should be mechanisms of ensuring equal number of members from both partners tasked to look into ways of coming with a better Union.
He said it was not necessary to alter the current two-tier structure of the Union, arguing that it was most proper.
“What we need is to address the challenges that are there,” he the permanent secretary summed up.
ENDS/ams
Source: The Citizen
http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/news/-/28289-give-zbar-president-clout-in-mainland-call
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