Constitutionalism and Democratic Governance in Africa: - PULP

32 Chapter 2
emergence of a party-state. 81 The establishment of a single party regime in
1965 and later on the adoption of the Ujamaa ideology in 1967 enhanced
the trend of excluding citizens from participating in constitutional debates.
The logic of single-party politics and the nature of the socialist system have
tendencies of centralising power and excluding not only those who are
against the dominant ideology but also the ‘no-vanguard elite’.
Experiences of communist and socialist countries worldwide, which have
widely been documented, attest to the claim. 82
Dourado, venturing in a discourse on party supremacy, had this to
say: 83
I will now deal with the fiction of single party supremacy. But first let us
define what we mean by a federation. Federation can be defined as
constitutional system in which there is a division of legislative and executive
powers between a central government and two or more state governments and
each government being supreme in matters left to them. The governments are
co-ordinate with one another and not subordinate. The essence of a federation
is the supremacy of each government in its own sphere. From this very
definition it can be seen that party supremacy can have no relevance in a
federation.
The 1965 Constitution had to be amended to restore the original provision
which excluded the organs of government from the political activity of the
Party. Otherwise it would have been tantamount to creating a unitary state
through the back door. By granting the party supremacy over the organs of
government one of the fundamental provisions of the Articles of Union of
1964 was breached. 84 Jain who is quoted by the former Chief Justice of
Tanzania, is critical about how the single party system altered
81
Shivji (n 79 above) 29.
82 Ndumbaro (n 64 above) 13. Between 1965 and 1977 when the permanent constitution
was adopted, the Interim Constitution was often amended. The conspicuous changes
were: one of the amendments increased the jurisdiction of the union government in
terms of the number of union matters, thus constricting the autonomy of Zanzibar. This
was arguably contrary to the provisions of the Articles of Union yet did not then
become a constitutional issue between Zanzibar and the Mainland. The second
amendment was the consolidation of the party-state and undermining of the National
Assembly in favour of the National Executive Committee of the party. Thus, for
example, the 1975 amendment declared the supremacy of the party by providing that
the functions of all state organs shall be performed under the auspices of the party as
per section 3(4). It changed the composition of the National Assembly such that only 40
per cent were directly elected constituency members, 30 per cent indirectly elected by
the National Assembly or the Revolutionary Council and 30 per cent appointed by the
Executive (president of the Union and the president of Zanzibar). See Shivji (n 55
above) 30.
83 Dourado (n 10 above) 92-93.
84 Dourado (n 10 above) 95. Article III(a) of the Articles of Union of 1964 states: During
the interim period the Constitution of the united republic shall be the Constitution of
Tanganyika so modified as to provide for:
A separate legislature and executive in and for Zanzibar as from time to time
constituted in accordance with the existing law Zanzibar and having exclusive authority
within Zanzibar for matters other than those reserved to the parliament and executive
of the United Republic.