PREVIEW
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa will not seek re-election in October
President Samia Suluhu Hassan appears to be consolidating her control of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party after Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa became the latest senior official to announce plans to retire from politics.
Majaliwa, who had previously said that he would seek re-election at October’s elections, will instead stand down from parliament and as premier. His decision comes just weeks after Vice-President Philip Mpango said he was stepping away from politics (AC Vol 62 No 7, Life after the bulldozer).
Majaliwa was appointed prime minister in 2015 shortly after John Magufuli won that year’s presidential election. Many saw him as a potential successor to Magufuli, who died from Covid-19 in 2021 and was instead succeeded by his then Vice-President Hassan.
‘It is time to allow others to build on what we have started,’ he said, without giving further explanation.
Both Majaliwa and Mpango were seen as technocrats, though Majaliwa was also a Magufuli loyalist (Dispatches, 5/10/22, End dissent in cabinet, ministers told). Majaliwa, like Hassan, is a Muslim in a Christian majority country and his resignation could be part of a move to balance religious representation at the top of government. At the same time, the departure of both will leave President Hassan with more options after the October polls if she forms a new government.
President Hassan is unlikely to face a significant opposition challenge later this year. Her main potential opponent, Chadema leader Tundu Lissu, is in jail facing trumped up treason charges having already been banned from standing. Party analysts say that she has spent much of her first four years in the presidency balancing factions loyal to Magufuli and his predecessor Jakaya Kikwete.
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