State Minister in the Second Vice-President's Office Mohammed Aboud Mohammed

Zanzibar residents have been urged to use the opportunity to present their opinions to the constitutional review commission to propose solutions to problems marring the union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

The challenge was thrown by State Minister in the Second Vice-President's Office Mohammed Aboud Mohammed when responding to a question asked by Wawi Representative Saleh Nassor Juma in the ongoing House of Representatives session at Chukwani in Zanzibar on Monday.

The Representative wanted to know the reasons behind lack of a good ratio when it comes to appointments to key Union positions between Zanzibar and Tanganyika residents.

Minister Aboud said there was no particular criteria nor a guiding formula in making the appointments which was established by the union constitution, adding that the appointing authority, who happens to be the union president and commander in chief of the armed forces, had descritionary powers to appoint anyone he deems fit.

He said now that a team was going around the country to collect people's views on a new constituency people had to utilise the chance to suggest sulutions to the problems besetting the union in order to make it stronger.

He said the collection of views by the commission would give the people on both sides of the union the opportunity to present their opinions on relevant changes to be made to the union with a view to making it sustainable.

He said the people's opinions will count in coming up with the new constitution, hence the people should not waste the opportunity once they are visited by the commission team.

The minister said the current union constitution empowers the president to appoint people to hold key positions, including those of head of defence forces, head of national security and inspector general of police.

Earlier, Saleh had wanted to know if there was a special arrangement for appointing people to key positions in the union government.