Election fever: What it’s all about

After the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies, which is the lower house of Parliament this week, the stage is set for parliamentary elections in mid September. When Rwandans go to the polls, they will be electing representatives to the Chamber of Deputies for a term of five years. The elections are conducted under a multiparty political system that has been characterised as unlike many other multiparty systems. Unique in a sense that every party makes a list of its preferred candidates in order of preference and they are awarded seats that are proportional to the voters they party garners in the polls on the national level. Candidates from the different political parties stand on a national constituency as opposed to specific constituencies that is common in many other multiparty democracies. The out going lower house of parliament had representatives from seven political parties. A coalition of five parties led by the RPF won forty seats in the house. Other parties that participated in the 2003 elections were the Liberal Party (PL), Social Democratic Party (PSD), and the Party for Progress and Concord (PPC) a party that did not win a seat in the house. This year each political party is expected to give a list of no more than 80 candidates from which the parliamentarians will be chosen via proportional representation. The law also provides for independent candidates. To win a seat as an independent candidate, one has to garner at least five per cent of the national vote in the parliamentary elections. No independent won a seat in the last elections. Thus in accordance with the constitution, a party or independent candidate that fails to attain five per cent of the vote cannot be represented in the chamber of deputies and also cannot receive grants given to political parties by the government. As election fever heats up, press reports have quoted the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) Inkotanyi’s vice chairman saying that they are likely to accept a coalition with other six political parties. The accommodative nature of the political process in Rwanda is definitely reflected in the workings of some political parties like RPF. This according to watchers of Rwanda’s political process is always driven by the motivation to create national harmony and unity given Rwanda’s recent history. The party vice chairman Christopher Bazivamo was quoted saying; “It is a principle on which RPF-Inkotanyi is built that we work together with other political parties that wish to, but the ultimate decision of whether we are going to campaign with these parties will be taken by the Political Bureau.” Ends