RPF sweeps polls to retain House majority

A coalition dominated by the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) has swept this week’s parliamentary polls, with a convincing 76.22 per cent victory, meaning the ruling party has retained majority seats in the Chamber of Deputies.The landslide win for the RPF-Inkotanyi and its four partners– which contributed two candidates each on the coalition’s 80-member list with all others being RPF cadres – will see the party land nearly 40 out of the 53 seats that were up for grabs in Monday’s poll.Coalition ensembleThe parties that ran alongside RPF include the Centrist Democratic Party (PDC), Parti du Progrès et la Concorde (PPC), Parti Socialiste Rwandais (PSR) and the Ideal Democratic Party (PDI), and each could end up with at least one seat in the Lower House.The Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Liberal Party (PL) which came second and third with a minimal 13.03 per cent and 9.29 per cent, respectively, will share about a dozen seats between themselves.The RPF-led coalition collected 4,439,948 out of 5,881,874 votes, the National Electoral Commission said yesterday. In terms of percentages, the RPF won most votes from the Diaspora, at 97.11 per cent, while it collected least votes from the City of Kigali, at 74.75 per cent.The party garnered 77.02 per cent of the total votes cast in the Northern Province, 76.81 per cent in the Southern Province, 75.91 per cent in the Eastern Province, and 75.77 per cent in the Western Province.Huge voter turnoutA total of 5,953,531 voters registered for 53 openly contested seats in an 80-member Chamber of Deputies. Some 98.80 per cent of voters cast their ballot in the Monday polling exercise. Rwanda has bicameral Parliament.NEC officials said all votes had been counted.Also in the race were PSD, PL and the Social Party (PS-Imberakuri), and four independent candidates.Neither PS-Imberakuri, nor the four independent candidates won a seat after failing to get the minimum 5 per cent of the total votes cast required to win a seat in the House for the 53 slots.Preliminary final results from Monday’s election will be announced tomorrow, along with the preliminary final results from elections of representatives of special interest groups, NEC said.Preliminary results from yesterday’s elections of the 24 women’s representatives will be announced today, while electoral colleges for the youth (two seats) and the disabled (one) will also pick their representatives.