Rwanda's ruling party coalition regains parliamentary majority

Kigali: The Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), the ruling party, and its allied parties is on course to retaining its parliamentary majority in lower chamber of Parliament, according to partial results announced by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) Wednesday.

The RPF and its coalition won 62.67 percent of the 53 seats representing political parties and independent candidates after this week's legislative election, with more than 96 percent of the votes counted, NEC said in a statement.

This could translate to at least 33 seats out of 53 seats in the Chamber of deputies elected through direct adult suffrage, reported Xinhua news agency.

The opposition Liberal Party (PL) led by Donatille Mukabalisa, a former speaker of Parliament, won 10.97 percent of the vote while the Social Democratic Party (PSD) led by former Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta garnered 9.48 percent, the results showed.

Other parties, including the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, Ideal Democratic Party (PDI) and PS Imberakuri that fielded parliamentary candidates won 5 percent each, according to the partial results.

Out of roughly 9.5 million eligible voters, 8.7 million votes in the parliamentary elections had been tallied as of Tuesday, the commission said.

A total of 589 candidates contested for the 80 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the bicameral national legislature of Rwanda. These include representatives from political parties, special groups (youth, women, and people with disabilities), and one independent candidate.

The elections for special groups were conducted Tuesday by electoral colleges.

NEC said preliminary results of the legislative election will be expected by Saturday.