European lawmakers commend parliamentary efforts

The Political Coordinator of the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA), Senator Alain Destexhe, has commended the government’s multi party system which he credited for all inclusive politics, The New Times reports. Senator Destexhe was addressing 260 participants who had turned up for a one-day elections seminar at the Kimihurura- based Parliament. “Sometimes elections take the form of violence, and it is not a problem in Africn alone. Some European countries had that challenege before, but we are impressed by Rwanda’s effort that has built a culture of multi party democracy,” he said The 25-year old AWEPA works in cooperation with African parliaments to strengthen parliamentary democracy in Africa, keeping Africa high on the political agenda in Europe, and facilitating African-European parliamentary dialogue. The Vice Speaker of Parliament and the Chairperson of AMANI Rwanda chapter, Polisi Dennis, told the participants that violence is common during or after elections in African countries mainly because of political views based on wrong reasons like ethnic or tribal backgrounds. “Since most countries in this region are going to polls next year, I hope that this conference ends with solutions on how to have peaceful elections and avoid, manage and control conflicts during that period,” he said. The President of the Senate, Vincent Biruta, said that that though Rwanda has made commendable democratic achievements, there was still room to learn more and perfom better calling on participants to own the civic education program and educate others. The seminar was attended by Members of Parliament, Directors of Good Governance in districts, Youth representatives, the National Electoral Commission, the National Women’s Council, the National Institute of Statistics, and Forum of Political Parties among others. Ends