Independent presidential candidate Philippe Mpayimana, 54, is proposing a number of changes to the Chamber of Deputies that he would implement if elected as Head of State in the July 2024 polls.

They include reducing the number of Deputies – all members of parliament in the lower house to 65 from the current 80. This is one of the proposals in his manifesto.

He is contesting for the presidency with the incumbent President Paul Kagame, who is the flag-bearer of the ruling party Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF Inkotanyi), and Frank Habineza, the Chairperson of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR).

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Mpayimana proposes a review of the way members of Parliament (MPs) – representatives of the people in the legislature, are elected.

For him, candidates for parliamentary positions must campaign at district level.

Each district, he said, must be represented by two MPs – and there are 30 districts in Rwanda – and five must come from special interest categories (two from the diaspora, two from the youth, and one from people with disabilities) – totalling 65 lawmakers.

All parliamentary candidates, he said, must submit their candidatures individually and may be supported by one or no political party. The indication of a political party of a candidate’s affiliation is done before or after election, but no political party must be mentioned in a polling station/room, he indicated.

The Chamber of Deputies is composed of 80 members: 53 elected from a fixed list of names of candidates proposed by political organisations or independent candidates elected by direct universal suffrage based on proportional representation; 24 women elected by specific electoral colleges following the national administrative entities; two elected by the National Youth Council; and one elected by the National Council of Persons with Disabilities.

Currently, the election of the 53 MPs is dominated by political parties that submit lists of the candidates to the National Electoral Commission (NEC), and their seats in the Chamber of Deputies depend on the number of votes they garner in polls.

Indeed, when a party files a list of candidates but gets inadequate votes for all of them to be MPs, the first ones on the list secure the seats it won in elections.

During a press conference held in Kigali on June 25, Mpayimana said that the current practice where parties campaign for candidates and they are voted through such political organisations is not the best way to elect the representatives of the people in parliament, indicating that even Rwandans disapprove of it.

When candidates campaign individually before residents, he said, residents become familiar with them and once the former become MPs, there is a higher likelihood that they better respond to the needs of the people who voted for them.

Abolition of the 30 per cent quota for women

Mpayimana suggests the removal of a women special interest group that is allocated a 30 per cent quota of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and instead promote 50/50 gender parity among parliamentary candidates.

Data from the Parliament of Rwanda shows that women accounted for the majority of seats in the Chamber of Deputies with 61.3 per cent of MPs of the third legislature, which was dissolved on June 14 for the purpose of the July 2024 elections, being women.

Mpayimana observed he can say that the 30 per cent quota that was allotted to women in Parliament was necessary back when it was set, but pointed out that the legislation – including the constitution – that provides for that should be amended.

He suggested that the government should encourage both women and men to submit their candidatures, but the election of MPs should be determined by Rwandans who have the right to vote those they want to represent them in parliament.

What does the representation of the diaspora in parliament mean?

On the need to have MPs representing the diaspora, he said that the diaspora is considered the sixth province of Rwanda, which reflects its importance to the country.

The representation of the diaspora in parliament will contribute to the improvement of relations among the Rwandan community abroad [who are in different foreign countries], as well as its engagement in the development of the country, he observed.

It is Mpayimana's second time to contend for the Head of State position after an unsuccessful attempt in 2017 when he got just over 0.7 per cent of the total votes in elections that the incumbent, Kagame, won by a landslide – with more than 98 per cent of the votes.