After announcing the provisional results of the July 14-16 parliamentary elections, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) also shed light on how the seats in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Rwanda’s bicameral parliament, will be shared.
There are 80 seats in the lower house, 27 of them being reserved for three special interest groups – 24 seats for women, two for the youth, and one for people with disabilities.
The remaining 53 lawmakers are elected through direct suffrage, with candidates from political parties and independents vying for the seats.
For a political party or an independent candidate to get a seat in Parliament, the Constitution requires them to have at least 5 per cent of valid votes.
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According to the provisional results, the RPF-Inkotanyi coalition got 68.83 per cent of the 8,901,453 valid votes cast in the recently concluded parliamentary elections.
The Liberal Party (PL) got 8.66 per cent, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) secured 8.62 per cent. PDI got 4.61 per cent; Green Party, 4.56 per cent; and PS-Imberakuri, 4.51 per cent. PDI, Green Party and PS-Imberakuri's results were rounded off to five per cent, according to NEC.
Independent candidate Janvier Nsengimana got 0.21 per cent of the votes. He fell short of the required 5 per cent, to get a seat in parliament.
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With over 68 per cent, the RPF coalition, which includes PPC, PSR, PDC, PSP and UDPR, will get 37 seats while PL and PSD will get five seats each.
Green Party, PDI, and PS-Imberakuri will get two seats, each.
In the last legislature, Green Party and PS-Imberakuri had two seats, each while PDI, which was part of the RPF coalition, had one seat.
NEC is expected to release the final results of the parliamentary elections not later than July 27.