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Parliament in a One-Party State—the Bunge of Tanzania, 1965–70

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

The introduction of the one-party system in Tanzania in 1965 was in part explained as a means of rescuing the National Assembly or Bunge from decline and decay. This institution had become a rubber stamp, according to the Presidential Commission, making few meaningful contributions to the system of government: debates had become ‘lifeless and superficial’, and legislation was passed rapidly and uncritically, ‘without challenge to basic principles or careful examination of detailed provisions’. The President had appropriately raised the question of whether the National Assembly should be formally removed from the structure of the state, or amalgamated with that of the ruling party.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

Page 19 note 1 Report of the Presidential Commission on the Establishment of a Democratic One-Party State (Dar es Salaam, 1965), p. 20,Google Scholar hereinafter referred to as the One-Party Report.

Page 20 note 1 Cliffe, Lionel (ed.), One-Party Democracy (Nairobi, 1967), p. 343.Google Scholar

Page 21 note 1 See Helge Kjekshus, ‘The Voting Public: Tanzania's General Elections, 1965 and 1970. Some Statistical and Cartographical Notes’, Bureau of Resource Assessment and Land Use Planning, Dar es Salaam, 1972.

Page 21 note 2 See Kjekshus, Helge, ‘Fifteen By-Elections: the problem of non-participation’, in Eastern Africa Law Review (Dar es Salaam), forthcoming.Google Scholar

Page 22 note 1 Majadilianoya Bunge (Dar es Salaam), 02 1966,Google Scholar hereafter referred to as Bunge.

Page 22 note 2 Ibid. 26 March 1969.

Page 22 note 3 Ibid. 26 July 1968.

Page 22 note 4 Title of editorial in The Nationalist (Dar es Salaam), 29 07 1968.Google Scholar

Page 22 note 5 van Velsen, H. U. E. Thoden and Sterkenburg, J. J., ‘Stirrings in the Tanzanian National Assembly’, in Kroniek van Afrika (Leiden), IV, 1968, pp. 298305.Google Scholar

Page 23 note 1 Bunge, 13 July 1968.

Page 25 note 1 Cf. Hopkins, R. F., ‘The Role of the M.P. in Tanzania’, in The American Political Science Review (Menasha), LXIV, 3, 09 1970, pp. 762–3.Google Scholar

Page 26 note 1 Nyerere, Julius K., Freedom and Socialism (Nairobi, 1967), p. 90.Google Scholar

Page 26 note 2 Hopkins, loc. cit. p. 762.

Page 27 note 1 Kawawa, Rashidi, Bunge, 9 07 1966.Google Scholar

Page 27 note 2 Bomani, Paul, quoted in The Standard (Dar es Salaam), 27 06 1967.Google Scholar

Page 27 note 3 Kawawa, , Bunge, 9 01 1968.Google Scholar

Page 27 note 4 The Nationalist, 14 July 1966, editorial on ‘Question Time’.

Page 27 note 5 Ibid. 17 February 1967, ‘National Assembly’.

Page 27 note 6 Ibid. 1 October 1968, ‘Parliament’.

Page 28 note 1 Kawawa, , Bunge, 19 06 1968.Google Scholar

Page 29 note 1 Ibid. 15 July 1969. Tanzania later recognised the Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam.

Page 29 note 2 R. S. Wambura, ibid.8 July 1967.

Page 29 note 3 Kawawa, Ibid. 22 July 1968.

Page 30 note 1 Ibid. 22 June and 22 July 1968, especially comments by M. F. K. Chogga and S. M. Kibuga.

Page 30 note 2 An answer to these mainland M.P.s was given by Sheik Karume, then President of Zanzibar, in an interview with The Sunday News (Dar es Salaam), 6 10 1968:Google Scholar there was ‘absolutely no connection between democracy and elections [which were] introduced by the colonialists to perpetuate their rule’.

Page 30 note 3 The term ‘constitutional reformers’ was used by Chief Justice P. T. Georges during the treason trial of Gray Mattaka and six others, in order to identify a group of expelled M.P.s. The trial in Dares Salaam was widely reported in The Nationalist and The Standard during the latter half of 1970.

Page 30 note 4 Ndobho, P.J. C., Bunge, 18 07 1967.Google Scholar

Page 31 note 1 Nyerere, Freedom and Socialism, p. 26.

Page 31 note 2 The Nationalist, 1 October 1967, ‘Party Discipline’.

Page 31 note 3 Bunge, 1 October 1968.

Page 31 note 4 Statement by T.A.N.U.'s National Executive Committee as reported in The Nationalist, 19 October 1968.

Page 32 note 1 N.E.C. resolution, ibid.

Page 32 note 2 For such tasks, see Nyerere's opening speech to the Second Parliament, 1965, in Freedom and Socialism, pp. 86–103, and his closing speech, ‘Five Years of Progress’, reprinted in The Standard, 7 July 1970.

Page 32 note 3 See Tordoff, William, Government and Politics in Tanzania (Nairobi, 1967), p. 23.Google Scholar

Page 33 note 1 Kawawa, , Bunge, 12 07 1968.Google Scholar

Page 33 note 2 The decentralisation policy launched in January 1972 has created practical opportunities-which did not exist for M.P.s during 1965–70 - for solving problems at the subnational levels in regions and districts.

Page 34 note 1 This system is used, inter alia, in France and Scandinavia, and I have suggested its relevance to Tanzania in another connection – see my ‘Seventeen By-Elections: the problem of non-participation’, loc. cit.

Page 34 note 2 Tanganyika Legislative Council. Official Report (Dar es Salaam), 18 06 1958, p. 1098.Google Scholar

Page 34 note 3 Kawawa, ibid. p. 1096.

Page 34 note 4 Disqualification (National Assembly and Miscellaneous Offices) Act, No. 7 of 1962.

Page 34 note 5 Disqualification (National Assembly and Miscellaneous Offices) Act, No. 63 of 1964.

Page 34 note 6 Tordoff, op. cit. p. 23.

Page 35 note 1 One-Party Report, p. 24.

Page 35 note 2 The Arusha Declaration is reprinted in Nyerere, Julius K., Ujamaa: essays on socialism (Dares Salaam, 1968), pp. 1337.Google Scholar

Page 35 note 3 Interim Constitution of Tanzania (Amendment No. 2) Act, No.40 of 1967; also National Assembly (Qualifications of Members, Forms and Procedure) Act, No. 14 of 1968, and Amendment Act, No. 24 of 1969.

Page 36 note 1 Rahim, Bashir, ‘Legislative Implementation of the Arusha Declaration’, in East African Law Journal (Nairobi), IV, 4, 12 1968, pp. 183202.Google Scholar

Page 36 note 2 Mhagama, J. B., Bunge, 25 10 1967.Google Scholar

Page 36 note 3 Ibid. especially comments by Mhagama, H. S. Sarwatt, and J. T. Lupembe.

Page 37 note 1 The Committee for the Enforcement of the Leadership Code Act, No. 2 of 1973.

Page 38 note 1 Kwilasa, A.S., Bunge, 1 10 1968.Google Scholar

Page 38 note 2 See reports in The Nationalist, 11 and 12 April 1969, and The Standard, 6 May 1969.

Page 39 note 1 The Nationalist, 2 February 1969.

Page 39 note 2 Ibid. 12 August 1970.

Page 39 note 3 Ibid. 9 december 1969.

Page 39 note 4 P. Msekwa, quoted ibid.

Page 40 note 1 Cf. a number of case studies in Socialism and Participation: the 1970 national elections n Tanzania (Dar es Salaam, forthcoming).

Page 40 note 2 The Public Officers (Eligibility for Elections as Constituency Members) Act, No. 11 of 1972.

Page 40 note 3 For the parliamentary debate, see Bunge, 20–28 April 1972.

Page 42 note 1 Hopkins, bc. cit. See also his Political Roles in a New State: Tanzania's First Decade (New Haven and London, 1971), esp. ch. 5.Google Scholar

Page 42 note 2 J. R. Finucane, ‘Participation in Rural Tanzania: the role of the M.P.’, University Social Science Conference, Makerere, December 1971. Of particular interest is the publication of a letter of 6 May 1968 from the Principal Secretary of State House, calling for the restricted flow of official information to M.P.s on the ground that this ‘may be used as a basis of attacks against Ministers in Parliament’.

Page 43 note 1 The Mwongozo, first published in The Standard, 22 February 1971.