The plenary sitting of the Lower Chamber of parliament on Friday, March 31, approved the relevance of the draft revision of the constitution initiated by President Paul Kagame, in which he requested the synchronisation of presidential and parliamentary elections.

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Going forward, it will be analysed by the Conference of Chairpersons comprising the Bureau of Standing Committees and the Bureau of the Lower House, before being put to a vote by the plenary sitting.

Among other provisions, the draft revision of the Constitution of Rwanda of 2003 revised in 2015 proposes that the election of Deputies is conducted on the same day as the election of the President of the Republic.

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According to the explanatory note of the draft revision, among reasons why the President of the Republic requests to synchronise the parliamentary and presidential elections is the need to reduce the time dedicated to organisation of both elections and the budget spent on them.

Article 175 of Rwanda&039;s Constitution of 2003 with Amendments through 2015 provides that the power to initiate amendment or revision of the Constitution is vested in the President of the Republic after approval by Cabinet, or in each Chamber of Parliament through a two thirds (2/3) majority vote of members.

On Friday, March 24, the Cabinet meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame, approved, among others, the initiation of a process to amend the Constitution to allow for the harmonisation of Parliamentary and Presidential elections calendars.

"The synchronisation of dates of the election of Deputies and presidential election will allow the simultaneous organisation of both elections, thus reducing the time that they would take if they were to be organised in different periods," the explanatory note reads in part.

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While explaining the relevance of the draft revision, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, said that the harmonisation of both presidential and parliamentary elections is done almost in all countries globally, where the term of office of the President and that of lawmakers are equal.

In order to harmonise the presidential and lawmakers’ election calendars, Ugirashebuja said, an amendment was needed to article 75 of the Constitution which talks about the composition of the Chamber of Deputies and election of its members.

The draft revision seeks that the election of 53 Deputies from a fixed list of names of candidates proposed by political organisations or independent candidates elected by direct universal suffrage based on proportional representation, be done on the same day as the election of the president of the Republic.

In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution relating to the term of office of the President and the term of office of members of Parliament, the next election of deputies was due in August 2023. That of the President of the Republic is due in 2024.

A transition provision for current MPs to serve longer

To ensure that synchronisation of the election of Deputies with the election of the President due in 2024 does not result in the lack of legislature, Ugirashebuja said that the Constitution is supplemented with a new transitional provision.

This provides that "Deputies in office at the time this revised Constitution comes into force continue to serve until the day of the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies due to elections.”

Article 66, on the commencement of office for members of Parliament also has to be amended. The deadline for convening the first sitting after the election of members of Parliament was fixed at 15 days after the proclamation of final election results for the Senate, and 15 days following the swearing-in of the President of the Republic, for the Chamber of Deputies.

Currently, the constitution provides that the first sitting is convened and presided over by the President within a period of 15 days after the announcement of the election results.