Parliament to examine report on term limits

Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Lower Chamber of the House and Senators will today examine a report that was compiled after a countrywide tour to solicit views from Rwandan people on whether Presidential term limits should be scrapped or not. The MPs carried out the consultations after they received petitions from close to four million Rwandans, who demanded the amendment of Article 101 of the Constitution, which provides for only two seven-year terms for the President. Bernard Makuza, the president of the Senate, told The New Times yesterday, that after examining the report, the legislators will put the matter to a vote. “The Political Affairs committee will table the report to the senatorial plenary sessions and the committee will propose the next step regarding the debate. Senators will thereafter vote on the proposal made by the committee and then, we shall take it on from there,” Makuza said. President Paul Kagame’s second term ends in 2017. However, there have been overwhelming pleas from Rwandans in all corners of the country who would like to have him steer the country beyond 2017. According to the petitions, the President’s track record, improvement of people’s welfare and the country’s remarkable development and economic growth is what inspired the calls for constitutional amendment. More than 3.7 million petitions that were received by Parliament represent over 60 percent of the eligible voters. The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Abbas Mukama, said that after today’s deliberations on Article 101, Senate Bureau, and the Conference of Chairpersons of parliamentary Standing Committees will subsequently begin to put into practice what the plenary has voted for regarding the matter. “Tomorrow’s (today) plenary sessions will basically decide on what the Parliament should do next regarding public petitions to amend the Constitution. We conducted countrywide consultations to ensure that all legal procedures are respected; some media reports suggested that people were being forced to petition parliament to change the Constitution, we also had to find out if that was true. And, instead, members of the public asked us to expedite the legislation process to pave way for amending the Constitution,” Mukama said. The consultations saw the legislators traverse all 416 sectors across the country, as well as hold consultative sessions with special groups such as workers’ unions, church leaders, lawyers, farmers, doctors, university faculty and business cooperatives. “People were asking us why we had to ‘waste time’ going back to ask them about amending the Constitution yet they had petitioned already. They told us that President Kagame has shown exceptional leadership skills. We talked to them and majority of them want Article 101 amended,” Mukama added. Senate president Makuza reiterated that Rwandans exercised their right to express their views on the matter and it is the feedback that will form the basis of their debate. Mukuza added that the consultation process was successful. “The turn up was high and Rwandans expressed their wishes which were similar to those conveyed in the petitions to Parliament.” He added that the people urged legislators to expedite the process to amend the Constitution. The MPs had to for-go their one-month holiday to deal with the petitions. If the MPs vote to amend Constitution, the lawmakers will then ask the National Electoral Commission to organise a referendum for Rwandans to vote on whether or not to amend Article 101 of the Constitution in accordance with Article 193 of the supreme law. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Parliament to examine report on term limits