Dodoma/Dar es Salaam. The political battle for National Assembly positions is officially shifting to that of the Deputy Speaker of Parliament as the seat becomes vacant, following the likely ascendancy of Dr Tulia Ackson to the post House Speaker today.
This comes after the ruling CCM members of Parliament (MPs) yesterday voted for a candidate to be elected as next Speaker of the National Assembly, and endorsed Dr Ackson to vie for the new higher post.
Speaking in Dodoma immediately after the endorsement, the chairman of CCM legislators, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, said the Mbeya-Urban lawmaker was endorsed by 100 percent of the voters.
The new development came after the CCM Central Committee (CC) had on January 20 approved the nomination of Dr Ackson as the candidate for the Speaker of the National Assembly, a seat vacated by Job Ndugai who resigned on January 6, 2022.
Mr Ndugai, who is the Kongwa MP, resigned last month amid piling pressure from the ruling party loyalists following his remarks over worrying public borrowing.
The election of the new Speaker will be the first order of business when Parliament resumes its next session in Dodoma today. Mr Majaliwa, who doubles as the country’s Prime Minister, directed all CCM legislators to be available in the Parliament today morning, ready for the election.
“After being done with the election of the Speaker, the position of the Deputy Speaker will remain vacant and the process to pick the contestant will start within the party,” revealed the premier.
After being selected to be the CCM’s flag bearer, Dr Ackson thanked her party and its MPs for their unity and cooperation since the process started.
“Yes, the process within the party involved a number of contestants. But we need to forget about the competition and cling together, instead” she urged.
The CC, which met in Dodoma on January 20 under the leadership of the party’s national chairperson, Union President Samia Suluhu Hassan, had approved Dr Ackson’s name out of 71 CCM cadres who had taken and returned the forms.
CCM’s CC had the option of picking up to three names and presenting them to a caucus of its MPs for voting before actual voting in Parliament.
Dr Ackson faced tough competition for the party’s nomination from former Pan-African Parliament vice president Stephen Masele, former attorney general Andrew Chenge, and former CCM Women’s Wing chairperson Sophia Simba.
But instead of keeping Tanzanians guessing on who of the three would finally carry the flag, the CC decided to shorten the process and came up with only one name - Dr Ackson, beating the other 69 candidates.
If elected today, Dr Ackson will be the second female Parliamentary Speaker after Anne Makinda, who was elected in 2010, replacing the late Samuel Sitta. Five years later, Ms Makinda, who held the post from November 10, 2010-November 16, 2015, announced her retirement from active politics.
She was thereafter inherited by Mr Ndugai, who resigned from the post, saying the move was a personal decision which had taken into account national interests. Mr Ndugai who assumed the position on November 17, 2015, was the first Speaker to resign while in office in Tanzanian history.
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