Tanzania 1984 Summary
Political leaders in Tanzania amended the constitution in 1984 to add a bill of rights. This (fifth) amendment to the 1977 constitution was drafted in response to mounting criticism of the top-down policies and tight economic control wielded by the single party state. Two related developments of the early 1980s favored the addition of a bill of rights as a response to this institutional crisis: 1) Tanzania’s involvement in developing the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, and 2) their leaders’ use of human rights language to galvanize international opinion against Idi Amin of Uganda (to help expel his forces from Tanzania). In addition, constitutional amendments proposed in 1982 had heightened fears about Zanzibar’s autonomy, where leaders emphasized that prior to unification, citizens had been protected by a bill of rights.
The national executive committee of the ruling (socialist) party developed the text of the amendment, which was then discussed and amended at a national party conference. The party published the proposed amendments in newspapers in February 1983. Over the next seven months, a series of speeches were made to solicit comment, and party officials accepted comments and proposals (reportedly more than 9000) from all parts of the country. A special committee of the party summarized the outcome, and developed a set of recommendations, which were presented to the central and executive committees of the ruling party. The final text was developed by these committees and submitted to the legislature. There were several days of debate in the legislature, during which one member introduced a motion to amend the bill so as to grant parliament greater power over the establishment of constituency boundaries. This motion, however, was rejected by the prime minister, who declared that the issue, because political, was a party prerogative. The bill was passed in regular session on October 20, 1984 with the required super-majority vote to become Act No. 15 of 1984. Five months later, on March 15, 1985, the (Fifth) amendment was approved by the president and came into effect.
In addition to adding a bill of rights to the constitution, the amendment increased the proportion of elected members in parliament, from a total of 111 to 169 of the total 239 members. A general election held 7 months after the amendment came into effect was peaceful but resulted in several petitions to annul results in particular constituencies where there was alleged corruption. The government was given three years to bring all laws into conformity with the Bill of Rights, which became justiciable in 1988.
Note: Many issues raised during the commentary process, such as calls to allow for multi-party politics, were not addressed. Action on this issue would not be taken until the next set of significant constitutional amendments in 1992.