Rwanda's consensual democracy, which consists of adopting decisions based on general agreement among concerned parties for the benefit of Rwandans, is a good model that should be upheld, the National Consultative Forum of Political Organizations (NFPO) has said.
It made the observations on November 10, during a "conference on political governance and consensus building in post genocide Rwanda: role played by the NFPO and political parties' members."
The Forum is mainly responsible of being a platform for national political dialogue, consensus building and national cohesion.
According to members of the forum, such a democratic system has been yielding results including the provision of social protection support including cows to vulnerable Rwandans through one-cow-per-poor family programme - Girinka, regardless of the political party to which they belong.
Alphonse Nkubana, the Chairperson of the Prosperity and Solidarity Party (PSP), said that the achievements made are laudable and should be safeguarded, commending the role of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)-Inkotanyi - the ruling party - in nation building.
"If RPF-Inkotanyi were eager for leadership, it could take all the leadership seats, including all ministers and members of Parliament coming from it, because it had won the battle [the liberation struggle that stopped the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi]," he said, pointing out that there are countries where that is the case for the ruling party.
"I have never heard of elsewhere in this world where people who go for a battle and win it, later share power with others who did not fight, or lost the battle," he said, pointing out that RPF-Inkotanyi's deed symbolises dedication to patriotism.
In Rwanda, power-sharing is respected in State institutions in accordance with the fundamental principles set out under Article 10 of the Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda and the provisions of other laws. The President of the Republic and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies cannot belong to the same political organisation as provided for by the Constitution of Rwanda in Article 62.
This provision also underscores checks and balance principle in the country's governance.
It stipulates that Cabinet members are selected from political organisations on the basis of seats held by those political organisations in the Chamber of Deputies. However, a political organisation holding most seats in the Chamber of Deputies cannot have more than 50 per cent of Cabinet members.
According to Nkubana, [some] foreigners perceive democracy in Africa under an unfavourable perspective, where they think that a political party is active when it is violent, such as by burning tyres, or destroying important buildings, or killing people, which he referred to as a wrong choice.
"For us we made a good choice consisting in holding a dialogue and search for a common ground and seek a solution through consensus," he said.
Talking about consensual democracy, Elisabeth Mukamana, a member of the Party for Progress and Concord (PPC), said that it is a unique system that the country chose, indicating that political parties are represented in the Parliament's Chamber of Deputies.
She pointed out that though members of Parliament originate from different political parties, they are representatives of all Rwandans, with their work converging towards considering what can benefit them and build the country, without political party-based discriminations.
"We should strive to foster the unity of Rwandans, because there is a good vision - vision 2050 - and we should continue to make progress. That is why we should keep working together as political parties and foster the unity of Rwandans so that we achieve the vision that we set for ourselves," she said.
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RPF-Inkotanyi Secretary-General Wellars Gasamagera said that RPF is at the forefront of the consensual democracy.
"After stopping the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, RPF chose consensual democracy to ensure that all the available forces in the country be brought together to build unity," he said, adding that the accountability principle is also provided for in Rwanda's' legislation for leaders to be answerable to how they use their positions to serve Rwandans.
The Spokesperson of NFPO, Pie Nizeyimana, said that different from the past when political parties were implicated in destroying the unity of Rwandans which contributed to the 1994 genocide against Tutsi in which more than a million people were killed, political parties comply with relevant laws and place consensus and tolerance first, at the same time striving for the unity of Rwandans.
