Tanzania’s next president, if elected from the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi, will no longer hold the powerful position of chairman of the party once the proposed reforms before its national executive council are effected.

The changes, which are deemed the first major reforms since the party was established in 1977, come as CCM prepares to nominate its presidential candidate for the October elections at a time when it has come under heavy criticism from the opposition in parliament over corruption cases linked to its MPs.

Under the proposed rules, Cabinet ministers would no longer hold positions in the party. Although the ministers are currently barred from serving in the party secretariat, they can serve as members of the national executive council (NEC) and the central committee (CC).

“We want to exclude the president and his ministers from party leadership; the party should be in the hands of other members, not the executive,” CCM secretary-general Abdulrahman Kinana said.

The ruling party, which was born following the merger of Zanzibar’s Afro-Shirazi Party and the Tanganyika African National Union (Tanu), is a relatively conservative party, jealously guarding its traditions.

Nape Nnauye, the CCM publicity secretary, told The EastAfrican that the prime minister was the chairman of the party caucus under the current system, making it hard for the party to supervise the government. 

“The system has to change so as to allow the party to have more mandate to supervise the government,” said Mr Nnauye. “Our aim is to provide the party’s national executive council ample powers to oversee the government because the government belongs to the party.”

However, the proposed changes have attracted criticism from political analysts, who argued that parliament, not parties, should have oversight roles over the government.

The changes will be presented to the party members soon after the new government is inaugurated and the new MPs sworn in, which will be around February next year.

Mr Kinana, who announced the changes, said they were intended to allow the party to hold the government and its leaders to account if they failed to deliver to the people.

The proposal comes at a time when the party, largely seen as old and corrupt, has failed to appeal to young voters and has been heavily criticised by the opposition in parliament for protecting its allegedly corrupt leaders.

Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show that 82 per cent of the population is below 40 years of age. Separate surveys have indicated that the youthful voters were largely concerned with lack of jobs and widespread corruption.

The youth overwhelmingly voted for the opposition in 2010.

Mr Nnauye said the fact that the changes were announced before the CCM nominated its presidential candidate did not have an impact on this year’s elections as the party secretariat will table the proposal early next year for discussion.

Since its establishment, the CCM has changed from a socialist party and accommodated multiparty politics but the roles of supervising the government lie with parliament rather than the party organs.

Dr Ally Bashir, a political scientist and lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, said Mr Kinana was nostalgic about the party’s past when it controlled the government but that that era was long gone and he should be talking more about Tanzanians rather than party members controlling the government.

“Structural changes within the party are hard,” said Dr Bashir. “The prime minister is a member of the party’s central committee and NEC, which are the employers of the secretary-general, and they are the most powerful organs of the party.

“I think he should have been talking about strengthening accountability beyond party control.”

Separation of powers

Dr Bashir however conceded that there was merit in Mr Kinana’s call for strengthening party control of the government, which was only possible if the party remained in power.

Meanwhile, members of the party’s NEC and CC and congress have begun arriving in the capital Dodoma in preparation for the start of the nomination of the party’s flagbearer in the forthcoming presidential election.

Some 38 candidates had managed to garner 450 sponsors from 15 regions by Thursday, which was the deadline for returning nomination forms. The party secretariat, which comprises nine officials, will grade the candidates but cannot eliminate anybody.

Then the eight-strong ethics and security team of the party, which is chaired by the party chairman, will take up the names and makes its recommendations to the CC, which is made up of 32 people, for it to come up with five names. The names of the five shortlisted candidates will then be forwarded to the 378-member NEC.

The NEC will come up with the top three candidates, which it will submit to the national congress to elect a nominee. The party will eventually nominate its candidate on July 12.