Rwanda Votes On Draft Constitution
May 25, 2003
Rwandans vote today in a referendum on a draft constitution that strives to strike a balance between advancing democracy and curbing the ethnic extremism that spawned the genocide of 1994.
Healing divisions between the Hutu and Tutsi is the issue
Rwandans vote today in a referendum on a draft constitution that strives to strike a balance between advancing democracy and curbing the ethnic extremism that spawned the genocide of 1994. Preventing a recurrence of the horrors of that year, when up to a million people were killed over the course of 100 days, and healing divisions between the minority Tutsi and majority Hutu populations, is a theme that runs throughout the text. The constitution’s promulgation will pave the way for the central African country’s first presidential election since 1988, when the sole candidate was voted in with 99.98 percent of the ballot. It will also lead to the first poll in which members of a national assembly are elected by universal sufferage. The question of ethnicity continues to loom large almost a decade after the genocide, when Hutu hardliners in the government of the day tried to rid country of its Tutsis. Many Hutus who refused to join in the slaughter were also killed.
Last week the current goverment, acting on parliament’s recommendation, called on the courts to disband the Democratic Republican Movement (MDR), the main Hutu party, on the grounds that it was fostering ethnic “divisionism.†More than 3.7 million voters are eligible to endorse or reject the draft constitution, which the transitional parliament adopted in late April. Eighteen observers from the European Union will be on hand to monitor the referendum, which calls for a largely directly-elected legsilature — the first in the country’s history — eases restrictions on political parties and provides for a president to be elected by universal suffrage for a single seven-year term. No date has been fixed for presidential or legislative polls but they are supposed to be held later this year. Although Rwanda ceased being a one-party state in 1991, political party activity has been suspended since a transitional period started in 1994. While it ends this suspension, the new constitution still obliges all political parties to work together under a Consultative Forum so that consensus can be reached on “major political issues of national importance.†It forbids parties to identify themsleves around a “race, an ethnicity, a tribe, a clan, a religion, a sex, or any other crititeria that could serve as a base for discrimination.†“The population, whom we consulted, didnt want political parties, because the multi-partyism between 1991 and 1994 left a bad memory,†Constitional Commission Chairman Tito Rutaremara told AFP. “That’s why we decided to limit parties, to avoid divisions,†he added. A number of prominent Rwandans have been arrested in recent years on accusations of fostering ethnic divisions, including former president Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu brought in as a figurehead of reconciliation when Tutsis took power after the genocide, who has been behind bars awaiting trial since April 2002.
There has been no campaigning ahead of the referendum, although the commission has criss-crossed the country over the last month to educate the public about the draft. No organisation is pushing for a “No†vote.
If a majority of voters accept the new consitutition, President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, is expected to promulgate it shortly thereafter and members of the current transitional legislature will be asked to pass the laws needed to organise elections. A “fundamental law†is currently in force in Rwanda, drawn from several instruments, including the 1991 constitution and peace accords signed in 1993 by the then Hutu government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a former rebel group now in power.
AFP
Rwandans vote today in a referendum on a draft constitution that strives to strike a balance between advancing democracy and curbing the ethnic extremism that spawned the genocide of 1994. Preventing a recurrence of the horrors of that year, when up to a million people were killed over the course of 100 days, and healing divisions between the minority Tutsi and majority Hutu populations, is a theme that runs throughout the text. The constitution’s promulgation will pave the way for the central African country’s first presidential election since 1988, when the sole candidate was voted in with 99.98 percent of the ballot. It will also lead to the first poll in which members of a national assembly are elected by universal sufferage. The question of ethnicity continues to loom large almost a decade after the genocide, when Hutu hardliners in the government of the day tried to rid country of its Tutsis. Many Hutus who refused to join in the slaughter were also killed.
Last week the current goverment, acting on parliament’s recommendation, called on the courts to disband the Democratic Republican Movement (MDR), the main Hutu party, on the grounds that it was fostering ethnic “divisionism.†More than 3.7 million voters are eligible to endorse or reject the draft constitution, which the transitional parliament adopted in late April. Eighteen observers from the European Union will be on hand to monitor the referendum, which calls for a largely directly-elected legsilature — the first in the country’s history — eases restrictions on political parties and provides for a president to be elected by universal suffrage for a single seven-year term. No date has been fixed for presidential or legislative polls but they are supposed to be held later this year. Although Rwanda ceased being a one-party state in 1991, political party activity has been suspended since a transitional period started in 1994. While it ends this suspension, the new constitution still obliges all political parties to work together under a Consultative Forum so that consensus can be reached on “major political issues of national importance.†It forbids parties to identify themsleves around a “race, an ethnicity, a tribe, a clan, a religion, a sex, or any other crititeria that could serve as a base for discrimination.†“The population, whom we consulted, didnt want political parties, because the multi-partyism between 1991 and 1994 left a bad memory,†Constitional Commission Chairman Tito Rutaremara told AFP. “That’s why we decided to limit parties, to avoid divisions,†he added. A number of prominent Rwandans have been arrested in recent years on accusations of fostering ethnic divisions, including former president Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu brought in as a figurehead of reconciliation when Tutsis took power after the genocide, who has been behind bars awaiting trial since April 2002.
There has been no campaigning ahead of the referendum, although the commission has criss-crossed the country over the last month to educate the public about the draft. No organisation is pushing for a “No†vote.
If a majority of voters accept the new consitutition, President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, is expected to promulgate it shortly thereafter and members of the current transitional legislature will be asked to pass the laws needed to organise elections. A “fundamental law†is currently in force in Rwanda, drawn from several instruments, including the 1991 constitution and peace accords signed in 1993 by the then Hutu government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a former rebel group now in power.
AFP