Kagame's Party Wins in Rwanda
Tuesday September 16, 2008
The ruling majority faced little opposition in Monday's contest:
- "...President Paul Kagame's Rwanda Patriotic Front won 42 of the 53 seats contested in Monday's direct voting, while the Social Democratic party took seven and the Liberal Party won four, [election commission chairman] Chrysologue Karangwa told reporters.
Twenty seven lawmakers are to be elected in indirect voting between Tuesday and Thursday, with 24 seats reserved for women, two for youth representatives and one for a representative of the disabled.
In 2003, for the first parliamentary elections held in Rwanda since the genocide in which 800,000 people were massacred, the RPF secured 74% of the vote."
In news of that genocide, an Italian priest testified to the U.N. tribunal last week that he told Tutsis seeking refuge in his church to leave. "Yes, I advised them to leave the church as they came [to church] in a manner which does not conform with Christian habits [values]," Tiziano Pegoraro told the court.
(Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Comments
The Rwanda election is interesting, especially considering women’s contributions to governance. Field research by The Initiative for Inclusive Security documents contributions to government in post-genocide Rwanda, which has the highest percentage of female parliamentarians in the world. The research is online at http://www.huntalternatives.org/pages/478_rwanda_project.cfm. In their first term, the Rwandan women legislators had an impact on policymaking and legislative process: they created the first cross-party parliamentary caucus less than two years after the genocide, enlisted male allies in effort to engender Rwanda’s laws, and consulted and involved the public in efforts to reduce discrimination, combat gender-based violence, and protect children. All in all, very compelling findings regarding women’s contributions to good governance post-conflict.
–Rebecca Miller,
Event and Policy Program Planner,
The Initiative for Inclusive Security