Rwanda Supreme Court Rules Competent to Try DGPR’s Case against Constitutional Change on Lifting of Presidential Term Limits

Today, the 9th September 2015, Rwanda’s Supreme Court ruled competent to try the case submitted by the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda vs State, against the constitutional change on lifting of Presidential Term Limits.

The State defendants had challenged the Supreme Court’s competence to try this case and also submitted that the case had no value and substance. The Supreme Court has rejected all State submissions.

The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda filed the lawsuit to the Supreme Court on 3rd of June 2015 and the first hearing was on the 29th of July 2015.

DGPR

The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda demands the Supreme Court:

1. To order the Rwandan Parliament not to change Article 101 of the Constitution;
2. To confirm that no referendum is required for those wishing to remove term limits from the Constitution;
3. To confirm that Article 193 does not allow the amendment of Article 101 regarding the number of terms of office of the President of the Republic of Rwanda;
4. To confirm that Article 101 is Intangible (ntayegayezwa) and cannot be changed by a referendum;
5. To confirm that, the term of office of the President, mentioned in Article 193, does not concern the number of times, a President can be elected for but the lengths of the term of office of the President, which is currently 7 years and can be reduced to five years or increased to 8 years;
6. To provide in-depths interpretation of Article 101 and 193 of the Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda.

The full hearing of Case will be on 23rd September 2015.

Done at Kigali on 9th September 2015

Dr.Frank Habineza

 President, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda