Editor, 

RE: "Kagame hails referendum ‘YES’ and ‘No’ voters” (The New Times, December 22).

Constitutional review: direct versus representative democracy.

I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the people of Rwanda for their participation in the recently concluded constitutional referendum, an expression of direct democracy as opposed to the traditional representative democracy exercised inter alia through members of parliament.

A referendum is the most frequent type of direct popular participation on constitutional matters. Modern democracies periodically hold such consultations depending on the issue at hand and the sample of the population they want to target.

A national referendum was held in Scotland on September 18, 2014 where voters were asked to answer whether Scotland should be an independent country (and secede from the UK).

The United States Congress has proposed a list of thirty-three amendments to the US Constitution which have been sent to the states for ratification since the constitution was put into operation on March 4, 1789.

Twenty-seven of these, having been ratified by the requisite number of states, are part of the constitution. The first ten amendments were adopted and ratified simultaneously and are known collectively as the Bill of Rights.

Burundi opted for a representative democracy where members of Parliament voted against the third term for President Pierre Nkurunziza, but Nkurunziza decided to overrule the will of the people via a self-appointed constitutional court whose mandate is to interpret the constitution instead of its amendment.

If Burundi had opted for a direct democracy, i.e. a referendum, the outcome would probably have been favourable to a Nkurunziza third term bid and today we would not see the turmoil that is slowly leading to a civil war at best and a genocide at worst.

The principle of popular sovereignty demands that certain fundamental questions, such as the adoption or amendment of a constitution be determined with the directly expressed consent of the people.

This is where Burundi’s Constitutional Court has abrogated its constitutional mandate by authorizing a presidential third term without an approval, either from a representative system or a referendum.

Bela