{"id":51010,"date":"2022-03-27T21:17:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-27T21:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/?p=51010"},"modified":"2022-03-27T21:17:07","modified_gmt":"2022-03-27T21:17:07","slug":"samia-agreed-on-constitutional-reforms-after-2025-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/samia-agreed-on-constitutional-reforms-after-2025-elections","title":{"rendered":"Why Tanzania\u2019s President Samia Agreed on Constitutional Reforms After 2025 Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Faridah N Kulumba<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/\">Africa-Press-Tanzania<\/a> <\/strong>This month Tanzania\u2019s State House issued a statement revealing that the government will begin the process of drafting a new constitution after the 2025 general elections. The constitutional reforms will be among other long-term issues that will be addressed then.<\/p>\n<h2>Beginning of the new constitution demands<\/h2>\n<p>In April 2021, just one month after Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn in as Tanzania\u2019s president after the sudden death of President John Pombe Magufuli, Tanzanian opposition leaders and rights activists held a forum urging the government to revise the constitution to allow more political space.<\/p>\n<h2>The Spark<\/h2>\n<p>This forum which was named \u201cKatiba Day,\u201d which means constitution day, was fueled by President Samia\u2019s remarks when she held her first press conference. Ms. Samia asked Tanzanians to give her time to stabilize the country economically before her administration can allow the banned political rallies to resume and revive the stalled process of drafting a new constitution. The rights groups insisted that President Samia should focus on the constitution since it facilitates stability.<\/p>\n<h2>Obstruction<\/h2>\n<p>During President Magufuli\u2019s administration, he halted the process of drafting a new constitution soon after taking office in 2015 and banned political rallies the following year.<\/p>\n<h2>Reformists arrests<\/h2>\n<p>On 21 July 2021, Tanzania\u2019s main opposition leader of Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo party (Chadema) 59-year-old Freeman Mbowe together with other opposition leaders were arrested as Mbowe prepared to address a constitutional forum arranged by his party. Mr. Mbowe was charged with terrorism and stayed behind bars for eight months before the charges were dropped this month. Immediately after his release, Mr. Mbowe met President Samia to discuss their working relations.<\/p>\n<h2>Did the meeting influence the State House\u2019s statement<\/h2>\n<p>Mr Mbowe revealed that in the meeting they had with President Samia, the two leaders agreed that they are ready to work together if both of them are targeting justice as a pillar of running politics. This month before the State House issued a statement for the plans to change Tanzania&#8217;s constitution after the 2025 elections, President Samia had an exclusive interview with the BBC but refused to discuss the constitution, saying it was a \u201cmatter between herself and Tanzanians affairs.<\/p>\n<h2>Is president Samia calculating 2025 elections?<\/h2>\n<p>Last year in September, President Samia while in Dar es Salaam confirmed her political ambitions when she revealed that she intends to run for presidency come 2025, and become the country\u2019s first elected female president when she wins. She recalled that her ascendancy into power was by God\u2019s will and more so by virtue of the country\u2019s constitution, and urged all women to ensure that a woman candidate wins the vote outright in the next presidential race.<\/p>\n<h2>Why is it vital to reform the constitution?<\/h2>\n<p>President Samia has changed the tone of landscape ever since she made history after becoming the first female president of Tanzania, but members from the opposition side in collaboration with the activists want Samia to go an extra mile and change the constitution, claiming that the current constitution is the problem to the present political problems in Tanzania. Tanzania is currently governed by the 1977 constitution that was formed under a single-party system. Opposition and critics are challenging it since it favors the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party CCM. The reformists believe that one of the main results of a constitutional change would be the elevation of Tanzanians from the current situation that creates political and economic divisions.<\/p>\n<h2>Argument<\/h2>\n<p>The opposition actors argued that the current constitution gives too much power to the presidency which jeopardizes any mechanism of checks and balances within the government. They noted that Article 36 of Tanzania\u2019s constitution gives power to the president to appoint and punish all public servants including those in the executive, parliament, and judiciary branches. Article 37(1) states: The president shall be free and not obliged to take the advice given to him by any person, save where is required by this constitution or other law to act in accordance with the advice given to him by any person. And should the president be accused of any wrongdoing during his\/her tenure, the head of state is essentially untouchable, as per Article 46(1) and (2) which state that the president\u2019s tenure it shall be prohibited to institute or continue in court any criminal proceedings against him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The reformists believe that the new constitution would reduce the powers of the president, unify Tanzanians, and would kelp to equally distribute resources across the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Faridah N Kulumba Africa-Press-Tanzania This month Tanzania\u2019s State House issued a statement revealing that the government will begin the process of drafting a new constitution after the 2025 general elections. The constitutional reforms will be among other long-term issues that will be addressed then. Beginning of the new constitution demands In April 2021, just [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":50616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,7,12],"tags":[6991,75,8322],"class_list":["post-51010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-africa-press-tanzania","tag-magufuli","tag-president-samia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why Tanzania\u2019s President Samia Agreed on Constitutional Reforms After 2025 Elections - Tanzania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This month Tanzania\u2019s State House issued a statement revealing that the government will begin the process of drafting a new constitution\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/samia-agreed-on-constitutional-reforms-after-2025-elections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Tanzania\u2019s President Samia Agreed on Constitutional Reforms After 2025 Elections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This month Tanzania\u2019s State House issued a statement revealing that the government will begin the process of drafting a new constitution\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/samia-agreed-on-constitutional-reforms-after-2025-elections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tanzania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-27T21:17:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/sites\/17\/2022\/03\/img-6239df6a3b2a4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/samia-agreed-on-constitutional-reforms-after-2025-elections#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/samia-agreed-on-constitutional-reforms-after-2025-elections\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Why Tanzania\u2019s President Samia Agreed on Constitutional Reforms After 2025 Elections\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-27T21:17:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/samia-agreed-on-constitutional-reforms-after-2025-elections\"},\"wordCount\":755,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/samia-agreed-on-constitutional-reforms-after-2025-elections#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/sites\/17\/2022\/03\/img-6239df6a3b2a4.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press-Tanzania\",\"Magufuli\",\"President Samia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/samia-agreed-on-constitutional-reforms-after-2025-elections#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/samia-agreed-on-constitutional-reforms-after-2025-elections\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/samia-agreed-on-constitutional-reforms-after-2025-elections\",\"name\":\"Why Tanzania\u2019s President Samia Agreed on Constitutional Reforms After 2025 Elections - 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