The constitution of the parliament of the
Rwanda Legislative Branch is bicameral (composed of two legislative bodies) in nature. The legislative power is given in the hands of the government and also the two governing bodies of the parliament, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate of the parliament consists of total twenty six seats of which twelve members are voted by the local councils and eight members are chosen by the president himself. The other four members of the
Rwanda legislative branch are chosen by the political organization forum. The remaining two members present the institutions of higher education. The
Rwanda legislative branch also comprises of chamber of deputies which has 80 seats in total. The distribution of seats of the Chamber of deputies is as follows:
- Total number of seats: 80
- Selected by vote: 53
- Elected by the governing local bodies: 24 women
- Organizations comprised of young people and physically challenged people selects: 3
The Chamber of Deputies of the
Rwanda Legislative Branch once elected, serves the country for the next five years. The election was last held in September 29th, 2003. The next election is scheduled to be on 2008. The election results of 2003 are as follows:
- The RPF party received 40 seats
- The PSD party got 7 seats
- The PL party has 7 seats and the rest 27 members are selected indirectly.
The president of Rwanda serves both as the state head and also as the head of the government. In the year 1959, the Hutus, an ethnic group took over the ruling from the Tutsi king. In this war, a huge number of Tutsis were killed and many were forced to take shelter in other countries. Later on, the children of these people formed a group which came to be known as Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). In July 1994, they regained their power by defeating the Hutu regime.
