Mwinyi Reappoints ACT’s Othman as Zanzibar First Vice President, Completing Unity Government

Zanzibar President Hussein Ali Mwinyi has reappointed ACT Wazalendo chairman Othman Masoud Othman as First Vice President, bringing the opposition back into one of the highest offices of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar and advancing the restoration of the islands’ Government of National Unity.

The appointment was announced by the Zanzibar Revolutionary Council Office on Friday, September 18, 2026, and takes effect immediately, according to an official statement seen by Swahili Today.

Othman is expected to be sworn in at Zanzibar State House on Tuesday, September 22, at 10:00 a.m.

The appointment is particularly significant because Mwinyi is a senior member of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), while Othman leads ACT Wazalendo, Zanzibar’s principal opposition party.

But the arrangement is not an ordinary political coalition negotiated solely at the discretion of the two parties. It originates in Zanzibar’s constitutional Government of National Unity system, under which the First Vice Presidency is allocated to the qualifying second-placed political party, while the presidency and Second Vice Presidency come from the winning party.

That system emerged from the historic 2010 referendum in which about two-thirds of participating Zanzibari voters backed constitutional changes establishing a government of national unity, following years of bitter and sometimes violent political rivalry on the islands.

The latest appointment also marks the culmination of months of political negotiations following the October 29, 2025 election.

After CCM was declared the winner, ACT Wazalendo initially declined to submit a candidate for First Vice President, citing disputes over the conduct of the election. Negotiations between CCM and ACT subsequently ran from November 2025 until July 9, 2026, when the two sides signed a joint political reconciliation statement.

That reconciliation process moved into its final stages this week. ACT Wazalendo’s National Executive Committee met in Vuga, Unguja, on September 16 and selected its candidate for the First Vice Presidency, although the party initially withheld the person’s identity from its public announcement.

Mwinyi’s announcement on Friday confirmed that the nominee was Othman.

For Othman, it is a return to an office he has held before. Mwinyi first appointed him First Vice President in March 2021 following the death of veteran opposition leader Seif Sharif Hamad, who had occupied the position after ACT Wazalendo joined the unity government formed following the 2020 election.

Zanzibar’s power-sharing system dates back further. Following the 2010 election, CCM’s Ali Mohamed Shein became president while CUF leader Seif Sharif Hamad became First Vice President, inaugurating the first Government of National Unity created under the constitutional reforms.

The structure was designed to move Zanzibar away from a winner-take-all political system by ensuring significant opposition representation within government. Cabinet positions are also distributed with regard to parties’ representation in the House of Representatives.

Othman’s reappointment therefore carries significance beyond the return of one opposition politician to office. After the post-election standoff and months of negotiations between CCM and ACT Wazalendo, the move restores the opposition component at the top of Zanzibar’s constitutionally designed power-sharing government.

His swearing-in on September 22 will formally return the ACT leader to the First Vice Presidency alongside CCM President Mwinyi, marking another chapter in Zanzibar’s long-running experiment with government by national unity.