Members of Parliament will today start to traverse the country to enlighten the population on major amendments made to the Constitution ahead of next week’s referendum on the same. The discussions to run December 11 to 16 will take the lawmakers across all sectors of the country, according to a statement issued last evening. “This outreach is another opportunity for the Parliament to share with Rwandans how their wishes were taken into consideration in the revised Constitution. The Parliament will also remind the population that the final stage of the constitutional revision exercise is in the hands of the people, who will be asked to vote in a referendum to be held on December 18 2015,” it said. During the constitution revision process, an emphasis was put on the culture of self-reliance of Rwandans. Some clarifications were also made on key articles and their translation in all the three official languages was harmonised. This resulted in the reduction of the number of articles in the new Constitution from 203 to 177. Some of fundamental articles that were amended in the Constitution include: article 101 which maintained the principle of limited presidential terms but amended from 7 to 5 years. The switch will begin to be implemented after a 7 year term transition starting from the year 2017. Lawmakers say this was done in respect to people’s request to safeguard progress made and building a strong foundation change in stability. In other changes, the term of service for Senators will be moved from an 8-year non-renewable term to a 5-year term renewable once. Senators in office at the time of commencement of this revised Constitution shall continue the term of office for which they have been elected or appointed. The terms of office for the President and Vice President of the Supreme Court has also been changed from an 8 year non-renewable mandate to 5 year term renewable once. The President and the Vice President of the Supreme Court in office at the time of commencement of this revised Constitution shall continue the term of office for which they have been appointed. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
