Photo: AFP
According to provisional results on Tuesday, Rwanda’s ruling party is set to win three-quarters of directly elected parliamentary seats.
With 70 percent of ballots counted, President Paul Kugame of Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and its seven smaller coalition parties, won 75 percent of the votes after Monday’s election.
The voting, which started on Sunday, takes place over three days.
Parties are competing for 53 directly elected parliamentary seats. Of 80 total seats, 24 are reserved for women, two for youth and one for the disabled. These seats will be chosen by national committees and special councils.
Rwandan voters will chose the parties which then decide candidates to enter parliament, instead of the citizens voting for the individual lawmakers.
The country’s only critical opposition, the Green Party, is unlikely to win a single parliamentary seat with 4.5 percent vote, as 5 percent of votes is required to win a seat.
The results were similar last year with Green Party Leader Frank Habineza winning 0.45 percent of the votes in last year’s presidential election, and Kagame winning 99 percent.
According to the National Election Commission, almost all of seven million registered voters in Rwanda participated in the Monday’s legislative vote.
Kagame has been the de-facto leader of Rwanda since 1994 when his rebel army took power after routing extremist Hutu forces who initiated genocide against mainly minority Tutsis.
While Kagame is praised for halting the genocide and improving Rwanda’s economy, he is criticized for taking harsh stance with rights groups, who accuse him of violating free speech and ruling based on fear.
The final results for the parliamentary poll will come out after September 16.
BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr) |
