Mwinyi forms commission on suitable political system
Dar es Salaam. A 20-member presidential commission led by Chief Justice Francis Nyalali was formed by President Ali Hassan Mwinyi on February 19, 1991, to collect views of citizens on whether Tanzania should continue with the one-party system or readopt a multiparty system.
The commission was required to complete its job in a period of three months. Ten of its members were from Tanzania Mainland and the rest from Zanzibar.
Formation of the commission was decided in 1990 by the CCM chairman and Tanzania’s President, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, so that Tanzanians could have the opportunity to express their views on the issue before a decision was made about the trend of Tanzania’s future politics.
The commission was the second to be formed in the land since independence in 1961. Before Tanzania decided to be a one-political party country, a more-or-less similar commission existed to collect views of the citizens on taking the country from a multiparty system to a single political party system.
The commission was inaugurated on Tuesday, March 5, 1991 by President Mwinyi, who gave it different directives during its one -year period of assignment.
Speaking to commission members at State House in Dar es Salaam, President Mwinyi said the formation of the entity was to attempt obtaining people’s views.
“We have seen that we should have a time limit to discuss this issue because we don’t know when we are going to complete discussing it,” said President Mwinyi. That decision was made by the CCM National Executive Committee in its meeting held in February 1991.
The commission’s chairman was Chief Justice Francis Nyalali, who was deputised by Abdulwahid Masoud Borafia and secretary was Julius Sepeku.
The commission’s ten members from Tanzania Mainland were Tito Budodi, Balozi Wilbert Chagula, Hindu Lilla, Pius Msekwa, Juma Mwapachu, Balozi Tatu Nuru, Isidore Shirima, Lawi Sijaona, Dr. Kapepwa Tambila and Crispin Tungaraza.
Zanzibar’s 10 members of the commission were Wolfango Dourado, Ussi Khamis Haji, Pandu Ameir Kificho, Aboud Maalim, Omari Othman Makungu, Prof Haroub Othman, Salim Juma Othman, Zaina Khamis Rashid, Ali Juma Shamuhuna and Juma Khiari Simai
CCM supported the move by President Mwinyi to form the commission. CCM Secretary General Horace Kolimba, spoke to members of the party at the Vitongoji CCM branch, Pemba South, on Monday March 4, 1991, that the commission would enable Tanzanians to express their views about a political system that they wanted to have including giving the reasons that made them either to continue with one political party system or readopt a multiparty system.
“This commission is a good opportunity for the CCM members and Tanzanians in general to express their views without fear and have their views analyzed for a decision to be made,” said Mr Kolimba.
The following day, Tuesday on March 5, President Mwinyi inaugurated the commission at State House in Dar es Salaam.
He informed the commission that the main goal of its formation was to try to have the final opportunity of discussing a preferable political system that the country could adopt following the ongoing debate including collecting different views from the citizens all over the country.
One of the tasks of the commission was to evaluate views of people over the debate on whether the country should continue with one political party system or readopt a multiparty system.
The commission was also tasked to give advice and proposals over the need, prudence and the outcome of either continuing with one political party system or transforming it into multiple political parties without affecting key goals and foundations of the trend of the government righteous activities and responsibility of serving its people.
The commission was also tasked to observe, analyse and elaborate on the effects or advantages of any changes of the one political party system, particularly on the Union of Tanzania, the unity of Tanzanians, the country’s peace and the harmony of all Tanzanians in disregard of tribes, religions, colour or their genders.
The commission was also tasked to propose constitutional, legal and political ways of guarding against any political and security effects on transforming or not transforming the country’s political system with the aim of protecting the national unity, the Union of Tanzania and the harmony of all Tanzanians in disregard of tribes, religions, colours or their genders.
The body was also required to propose how the country’s ethos of democracy could be spread, strengthened and built, regardless of either of the political systems would be proposed by the commission.
It was also tasked to analyse and recommend about any kind of changes that would be expected in the constitutional sections of the United Republic and the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar or other legal sections involved or normal politics that had taken root in the country.
According to Terms of Reference given to the commission members, the latter were required to observe and elaborate on the effects of any changes that might be proposed by the majority people on the whole issue of the chance of Zanzibar in the Union.
It was also required to thoroughly observe whether Zanzibar would be on an advantageous position in terms of security to implement political reforms, basing on its political history and the characters of the people of Zanzibar.
Despite the fact that it was said the commission would be free to put in place its own procedures of executing its duties whenever necessary, in the ‘Terms of Reference’ it was explained that it was directed to observe the following important things:
1. To collect and analyse views given by individual people, groups of people or different institutions in the country on the issue of reintroducing a multiparty system or not.
2. To work on the army’s position in our society if a multiparty system was to be reintroduced.
3. To meet people and different institutions so that it could receive their views or proposals verbally or by writing.
4. To meet with people individually or in groups with the aim of obtaining their views.
5. To coin methods of obtaining views (pilot) from different groups of people, basing on geographical locations, gender, age, occupation, et cetera.
6. To keep quantitative data about those who have given their views.
7. To reach out to all districts and some villages in Tanzania so that they could have the opportunity of meeting people for collecting the latter’s views.
8. To coin any other methods of obtaining views of the people to make their assignment successful.
9. To be given a one-year period in which to complete the job.
The commission received the above directives on March 21, telling reporters in Dar es Salaam about its strategies after officially starting its job.
The chairman of the commission, Judge Nyalali, said there would neither be conditions nor obstacles of any kind to CCM non-members to give their views to his commission.
In its first phase of the execution of its duty that started on April 22, 1991 and ended in July the same year, the commission managed to visit seven administrative regions namely, Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Dodoma, Singida, Iringa, Mbeya and Tanga.
However, instead of starting its job on Monday, April 22, it did that on Wednesday, April 24 to collect views of the people at the University of Dar es Salaam before moving on to other selected points for collecting people’s views.
Finally, the Nyalali Commission handed over its report that was full of different proposals - with the main two being: whether the country should transform its one political party system into a multiparty system. And, two: transforming the system of the Union of two governments into a federation of three governments.
