section_path: Politics/Administrative subdivisions
section_name: Administrative subdivisions
paragraph_text: Administrative subdivisions
  
  In 1972, local government on the mainland was abolished and replaced with direct rule from the central government. Local government, however, was reintroduced in the beginning of the 1980s, when the rural councils and rural authorities were re-established. Local government elections took place in 1983, and functioning councils started in 1984. In 1999, a Local Government Reform Programme was enacted by the National Assembly, setting "a comprehensive and ambitious agenda... four areas: political decentralization, financial decentralization, administrative decentralization and changed central-local relations, with the mainland government having overriding powers within the framework of the Constitution."
  
  Tanzania is divided into thirty-one regions (mikoa), twenty-six on the mainland and five in Zanzibar (three on Unguja, two on Pemba). The thirty-one regions are divided into 195 districts (wilaya), also known as local government authorities. Of those districts, 45 are urban units, which are further classified as three city councils (Arusha, Mbeya, and Mwanza), twenty municipal councils, and twenty-two town councils.
  
  The urban units have an autonomous city, municipal, or town council and are subdivided into wards and sub-wards (mitaa). The non-urban units have an autonomous district council but are subdivided into village councils or township authorities (first level) and then into hamlets (vitongoji).
  
  The city of Dar es Salaam is unique because it has a city council whose area of jurisdiction overlaps three municipal councils. The mayor of the city council is elected by that council. The twenty-member city council is composed of eleven persons elected by the municipal councils, seven members of the National Assembly, and "Nominated members of parliament under 'Special Seats' for women". Each municipal council also has a mayor. "The City Council performs a coordinating role and attends to issues cutting across the three municipalities", including security and emergency services. The city of Mwanza has a city council whose areal jurisdiction overlaps two municipal councils.