(Reuters) – {Tanzania’s main opposition party called on Monday for protests this week after the ruling party rejected calls that include changing the way the nation is governed under a constitution now being drawn up, an early salvo before elections next year.
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The opposition party, Chadema, and its smaller allies are trying to challenge the dominance of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the party which has been in power since Tanzania’s independence in 1961. The assembly drawing up a new constitution has become a battleground.
Divisions between the opposition parties have long hampered their prospects. But Chadema and its allies, CUF and NCCR-Mageuzi, say they have begun talks to name a single candidate next year. Meanwhile, they want a new federal structure which some opposition officials say would end existing arrangements that have helped CCM keep its grip.
CCM dominates the assembly by virtue of its parliamentary majority, and it voted to reject the proposal for a new federal structure and other ideas promoted by their opponents. It wants to keep the existing governing arrangements.
“This will be a week of protests,” the Chadema party said in a statement, promising to defy a police ban on demonstrations against the constituent assembly, which has been working since March.
Chadema called for the assembly to be scrapped, after Chadema with two other opposition parties, the Civic United Front (CUF) and NCCR-Mageuzi, walked out in April.
Justice Minister Asha-Rose Migiro, a member of CCM, has dismissed opposition demands that the 630-member assembly meeting in the political capital, Dodoma, be dissolved, saying its quorum was intact even after those parties had quit.
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