Tanzania Goverment

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Tanzania Government

Until 1992—when legislation was passed allowing for opposition parties—the Chama Cha Mapinduzi, or Revolutionary Party of Tanzania, had been the country’s only legal party. The president, who is directly elected for a five-year term, is executive head of state and appoints two vice-presidents, one of whom is the president of Zanzibar and the other the prime minister of Tanzania.

Most members of the unicameral national assembly are elected; the others are nominated. The voting age is 18. Tanzania is divided into 25 regions, whose governments are headed by regional commissioners.

In 1961 Tanganyika was granted independence from the United Kingdom, and in December 1963 Zanzibar became an independent sultanate. In January 1964 the sultan of Zanzibar was overthrown, and in April 1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania. For the most part this union has been successful, although the Arab majority on Zanzibar would like more control over the economy and politics of the island than it presently holds.

For more than 20 years after independence, Tanzania was ruled by its first president, Julius Nyerere, leader of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi. Following a policy of self-help socialism, Nyerere improved welfare and educational standards but was less successful with the economy, which in the 1980s started to decline. In 1985 he stepped down (although he kept the party leadership until 1990) and was succeeded by Ali Hassan Mwinyi, who sought to reintroduce the incentives and free-market economy. In subsequent years, there were increasing calls for the introduction of multi-party democracy, and in 1992 legislation was passed allowing for political parties.

Books On the History of Independence of Tanzania

Tanzania Military

Military branches: Tanzanian People's Defense Force or TPDF (includes Army, Navy, and Air Force), paramilitary Police Field Force Unit, Militia

Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 8,365,337 (2001 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 4,841,095 (2001 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $21 million (FY98/99)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 0.2% (FY98/99)

Tanzania Transnational Issues Top of Page

Disputes - international: dispute with Malawi over the boundary in Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi); a resurvey of the latitudinal boundary with Uganda in 2000 revealed a 300-meter discrepancy that both sides are currently adjudicating

Illicit drugs: growing role in transshipment of Southwest and Southeast Asian heroin and South American cocaine destined for South African, European, and US markets and of South Asian methaqualone bound for Southern Africa.

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