observed, the Court of Appeal “said plainly that Parliament exceeded its powers [adding] that the legislative competence is limited to making laws which are consistent with the constitution.” c) The decision led to a debate, pitting the Speaker of the National Assembly, who condemned it as an “unfair assault” by the Judiciary on the legislative powers of the legislature and the Tanganyika Law Society, which hailed it as an expression of the courts’ power of judicial review of legislative action under the country’s constitution. As in the Rev. Mtikila’s case, the legislature in 2002 amended Section.111 of the Elections Act, 1985, to give the courts the discretion to exempt a petitioner from paying the deposit of Tsh. 5 million, if the court is satisfied that compliance with such a provision will cause considerable hardship to the petitioner. The amendment fuelled further debate over the extent of, and limits to, judicial and legislative powers in the country. Decentralisation 206. The provisions for political decentralisation are contained in Chapter Eight [Articles 145-146] of the 1977 Constitution. They provide for the establishment, structure, composition, sources of income, procedures for the conduct of the business, the purpose and the functions of local Government authorities in the country. Under Article 146(1), “the purpose of having local Government authorities is to transfer authority to the people, and the local Government authorities shall have the right and power to participate, and to involve the people in the planning and implementation of development programmes within their respective areas and generally throughout the country.” Article 146(2), prescribes the functions of a local authority as follows: “(a) to perform the functions of local Government within its area; (b) to ensure the enforcement of law and public safety of the people; and (c) to consolidate democracy within its area and to apply it to accelerate the development of the people.” 207. The 1975 Villages and Ujamaa Villages (Registration, Designation and Administration) Act, introduced a village administration to replace the decentralisation policy of 1972, which abolished the local Government and replaced it with regional and district development committees under district and regional directors. The 1975 Act introduced a village administration system made up of a Village Council: an elected body of 15 to 25 members. The Council was given legislative power. The Village Assembly comprised all adults living in the village. This was the system in place, until a new system of decentralisation, re-establishing local Government councils and incorporating the Village Council and the Village Assembly, was enacted into law in 1982. 208. This was the local Government council system in place, when the Local Government Reform Programme (LGRP) was adopted in the late 1990s.The LGRP was designed for execution in three phases, starting from 1999. The first phase involved 35 local authorities. The Local Government Reform Agenda (1996-2000) was enacted into legislation as the Local Government (Miscellaneous Amendment) Act in 1999, to replace Local Government laws passed since Local Government Councils had been re-established in 1982. The Act was passed as an ad interim or “transitional” law to be consolidated into a comprehensive legal architecture for the country’s local government system. 209. The reform envisioned that local Government councils and their institutions would: (i) be led by democratically elected leadership; (ii) operate autonomously, transparently, in an accountable manner, and without undue interference from central administration; (iii) foster participatory development, so as to reflect local demands; and, (iv) derive legitimacy from competent service delivery. Furthermore, Section 4 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Amendment) Act stipulated that the Minister shall “be guided and bound by the need to promote decentralisation and the devolution of functions, powers and services from the central Government to local Government and within the local Government system from district council to lower level of local Government.” 210. To this end, the Act enjoined the Minister to ensure: (i) the availability and adequate supply of trained and skilled personnel to the local Government; (ii) that local Government authorities are strong, effective, more autonomous but accountable to the people in the management of their affairs; and, (iii) that local authorities are financially and relatedly resource empowered to improve their capacities for stronger and effective service delivery to their people. 61