Tanzania Association of NGOs (TANGO)

Constitution of the Republic of Tanzania in Swahili , in English

About 170 Civil Society Organizations' representatives from all regions of Tanzania (mainland and partly Zanzibar) met at Dodoma Hotel on 13th & 14th March 2012 at a national constitution convention to elect names that were to be proposed to the President of the United Republic of Tanzania for possible nomination into the Constitutional Review Commission.

Acting in accordance to the Constitutional Review Act No. 8 of 2011 and the subsequent amendments made in February 2012, upon which the President had asked for names of people from various groupings to serve on the (yet to be formed) Constitutional Review Commission, TANGO and NACONGO formed a consortium with Jukwaa la Katiba to hold the national convention and show the country an exemplary way of electing leaders democratically.

After a rigorous, open and democratic process which included the proposing of names and casting of votes, the names were affirmed by convention’s delegates from the final list of five names which emerged out of the 30 names presented by 'zones'. The convention finally settled for the following names as their proposed names for possible nomination by the President (organisation in bracket): Professor Ruth Meena (Tanzania Gender Networking Programme,TGNP), John Ulanga (Foundation for Civil Society (FCS) and Humphrey Polepole (- Tanzania Youth Coalition

On 16th March 2012, which was the initial deadline set by the government authorities to submit names to the Chief Secretary at the State House, Tanzania Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (TANGO) forwarded the names to the President’s Office as agreed and mandated by the CSO convention. The selection of the three names can be said to be a landmark achievement by CSOs who despite getting a number of letters inviting them individually to suggest names of civil society representatives for possible nomination by the President, they opted to come together and formed a loose coalition to coordinate efforts to involve broader CSOs in the selection process. TANGO, NACONGO, Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, TUCTA and PINGOs Forum are among CSOs that received official letters asking them to propose names to the President. Many alternatives were considered but it was found that the most effective way was to liaise with CSOs of all forms and kinds to deliberate with their constituencies and then organize a convention at which the names of the people proposed by various CSOs will be scrutinized and finally the election of the proposed names would be done.