New Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye was chosen by president Mkapa but then had to obtain the approval of Parliament. He did so by 232 votes to 34. The opposition first had to qualify for official status as an opposition by having at least 30 members. This was rapidly achieved when the four UDP members united with the 28 CUF MP’s (the parties share an ideology which could be described as to the right of the other parties) to form the official opposition. They elected Mrs Fatima Magimbi, a self-made woman from Zanzibar, who rose from Secretary at the University of Dar es Salaam to full lecturer status through diligent part time study, as leader. She lost no time in telling the prime Minister that his first priority Was to Correct the ‘irregularities’ in Zanzibar and ensure that Mr Seif Shariff Hamad could take up ‘his rightful place as president’. Mr Mabere Marando MP whose self-sacrifice in giving up his position as leader of the NCCR-Mageuzi party early this year to Augustine Mrema, which enabled the latter to invigorate the opposition and give the CCM a real challenge, also lost no time in making his presence felt in parliament. He challenged the Attorney General on the issue of the form of the oath of allegiance of MP’s and, not only won his case, but also caused three MP’s to go through the process of swearing in a second time in order to regularise the situation.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT
The ‘Business Times’ has described the profile of Tanzania’s new government. It has 23 new faces and comprises 23 Ministers and 10 Deputy Ministers. Twenty-eight have university degrees including two Professors, six with Ph~ls, seven Masters degrees and 14 have first degrees. There are six agriculturalists (including the Prime Minister) and eight economists.
There are 13 Muslims and 20 Christians who have been drawn from a total of 18 regions. Thirty were elected and three were nominated.