The union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar is facing its biggest test ever after sharp divisions emerged within the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) over its administration in the debate on the country’s draft constitution.

Article 57 (1) of the draft constitution, which was published in June, proposes that the Union be governed as a federation with three governments: One for Zanzibar, another for mainland Tanzania (Tanganyika) and one for the Union.

It is a position vehemently rejected by CCM cadres on the mainland but accepted by CCM Zanzibar.

The government’s proposal is that the Tanzania government be in charge of Union matters with the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar and that of the mainland handling national issues.

Through the bipartisan Moyo Committee, which was behind the formation of Zanzibar’s Government of National Unity in 2010, ending decades-old political antagonism among Zanzibaris, CCM on the Isles has clearly rejected the current two-tier government, which CCM officials on the mainland says should continue.

Divisive circular

The six-member committee was formed by Zanzibar’s former president Amani Karume, now one of the two Vice-Presidents of Zanzibar alongside opposition party Civic United Front’s secretary general Seif Sharif Hamad.

In a circular issued to members seven days after the draft constitution was published on June 3, CCM mainland says the proposed three-tier government is against the party policy and agreements reached between the two sovereign states.

“The current two-tier government is a result of agreements between two sovereign states, which were the Republic of Tanganyika and the Peoples’ Republic of Zanzibar, in 1964,” reads the circular.

Therefore, it says, the Union of Tanzania should be formed of two governments, with the Union government taking charge of Tanganyika affairs and those of Zanzibar being taken care of by the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar.

However, this position is rejected by the Moyo Committee, named after its chairman Hassan Nassor Moyo, who was the minister for justice in the first Zanzibar government and among the few founders of the Union from the Isles still alive.

READ: We want more say in this Union, Zanzibar tells Tanzania govt

The committee says the current system has been very expensive for Zanzibar because members of its government have been forced to move to and from the mainland, where the Union government is based, in the execution of their duties.

Ismail Jussa, a member of the committee and Mji Mkongwe Constituency representative, told The EastAfrican the current system eats into Zanzibar’s sovereignty.

He said: “Despite the fact that this union is of two sovereign states, the current system has been an annexation of Zanzibar to the mainland, denying its right of free association provided under international law to all sovereign states.”

He said it was not true that Zanzibar was for a constitutional union as claimed by CCM through its advocacy of the two-tier government but has been for a contractual relationship between the two countries since 1964.

Through contractual union, Mr Jussa added, two countries or more agree to co-operate in specific areas but retain their sovereignty and rights as free states provided for under international law.

READ: Tanzanians still haven’t embraced Union, let alone EAC

“In this form of co-operation, each country retains its government in charge of all its affairs while those areas identified for co-operation are taken care of by a committee or commission depending on the agreements reached,” he said.

The Zanzibari position is further supported by its Attorney General Othman Masoud Othman, who was quoted as saying the three-tier government will strengthen the Union.

Speaking to The EastAfrican, Mustafa Kayoka, a senior journalist and lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, said the biggest problem CCM has is the party’s reluctance to correct mistakes committed by its founder Julius Nyerere at the time of the formation of the Union.

“There is nothing on record from the Tanganyikan parliament or the House of Representatives of Zanzibar showing that they agreed to give up the sovereignty of their states to form the Union,” he said.

Meeting between two people

The Union, according to Mr Kayoka, is the outcome of a meeting between two people—Julius Nyerere and Amani Karume of Zanzibar—and not the people of the two countries, which was a “mistake” that still haunts CCM today and must be rectified.

He said the Union was governed under an interim constitution for 13 years, from 1964 to 1977, when the Tanganyika National Union (Tanu) and the Afro Shirazi Party merged to form CCM. A 20-man constitutional committee was then formed to write the current constitution.

The idea of a three-tier government for the Union was mooted by Zanzibar’s second president, Aboud Jumbe, in 1984. Mr Jumbe was forced to resign from the government because of his opposition to the two-government system.