Samia Suluhu Hassan to become Tanzania’s first female president after Magufuli death
London, March 18, 2021 (AltAfrica)-Following the sudden death of Tanzanian President John Magufuli, vice-president Samia Suluhu Hassan is expected to be named Tanzanian next president
According to Tanzania’s Constitution, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan, 61, should assume the presidency for the remainder of the five-year term that Magufuli began serving last year after winning a second term.
She would be the East African nation’s first female president.
John Pombe Magufuli, the son of a peasant farmer who became Tanzania's president in 2015, has died aged 61.
— BBC News Africa (@BBCAfrica) March 17, 2021
Once praised for his no-nonsense approach, he went on to become a controversial leader, nicknamed the 'bulldozer' president: https://t.co/XkH75Vb3yJ pic.twitter.com/NeXOFxu62D
Born in the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar, Hassan studied economics in Britain, worked for the U.N.’s World Food Programme and then held various government posts prior to becoming Tanzania’s first female vice president in 2015.
Article 37 of Tanzania’s constitution
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Article 37 (2) states that when the cabinet finds that the president is unable to discharge the functions of his office by reason of physical or mental infirmity, it may submit to the chief justice a resolution requesting him to certify the president’s incapacity.
Upon receiving such a resolution, the chief justice must then appoint a medical board of no less than three people who are experts recognised as such by the law governing medical practitioners in Tanzania. This board is then tasked with making a determination and advising the chief justice accordingly.
The chief justice must then present the medical findings to the house speaker through a certificate that verifies the president is unable to perform his/her duties. At that point, it would be deemed that the president’s post is vacant and the vice-president would become president.T
President John Magufuli has died, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Wednesday.
Magufuli was 61. He was Tanzania’s first president to die while in office.
His death was announced after more than two-week absence from public life, that led to speculation about his health.
