The ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Central Committee has approved the nomination of Doctor Tulia Ackson as the candidate for the Speaker of the National Assembly.
This is after Job Yustino Ndugai resigned from the position following a debt fallout with President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Speaking to reporters yesterday in Dodoma, CCM’s Ideology and Publicity Secretary Shaka Hamdu Shaka said the Central Committee had approved Ackson’s name out of 70 CCM cadres who had taken and returned the forms.
“From Friday January 21 to 30 CCM MPs will vote for a candidate to be elected as next Speaker of the National Assembly,” he said.
The election of the Speaker will be the first order of business when Parliament resumes its next session in Dodoma in February.
CCM started the process on January 10 this year by issuing the nomination forms to its candidates in Zanzibar and at the CCM sub-office at Lumumba in Dar es Salaam as well as the party’s head office in Dodoma.
Ndugai had publicly questioned the government’s external borrowing in an economy buffeted by the global coronavirus pandemic.
He criticised the government’s public borrowing questioning whether the country’s debt level was healthy.
Ndugai submitted his resignation letter to his Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) secretary-general notifying of his move to step down.
“I want to notify the Tanzanian Citizens that today being 6th January 2022, I have written a letter to the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Secretary-General seeking to resign from the position of Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Tanzania,” read the statement.
“This decision is personal and optional and was made with the broad interests of my country, the government and my CCM party,” he added.