Peter Ruti
Africa-Press – Rwanda. In the previous articles on President Gregoire Kayibanda’s rule, we realised how divisionism reigned and ultimately led to the collapse of his regime. Against this background, we shall see whether this anomaly was corrected or exacerbated during the rule of Juvenal Habyarimana, who deposed Kayibanda in the July 1973 coup.
In the constitution established by MRND, all Rwandans were obliged to be members of the party. It stipulated: “All Rwandese enjoy full rights of membership to the Mouvement Révolutionaire National pour le Développement. They are known as militants and must conform to the statutes and regulations of the movement.”
Article 7 of the 1978 constitution specified the MRND as ther single political party beyond which no political activity could take place.
Given the MRND statutes and the constitution designed by President Juvenal Habyarimana’s government that Rwanda was under a single-party system, this also meant that the country was under a dictatorial regime. Indeed, MRND was identified with the state.
Habyarimana was the President, founder of MRND, Prime Minister, Commander in Chief of the National Army, Minister of Defense and President of the Judiciary. Hence, the new President of the Republic exercised both executive and judicial powers. This was detrimental to the image of the new regime.
On accession to power, the President promised the re-establishment of constitutional order within 5 years. Having governed by decree, it became necessary to introduce a constitution. The constitution of December 20, 1978 was designed by three specialists, hence: the legal adviser in the Ministry of Public Service, the MRND legal adviser in the Ministry, as well as the Vice-Dean of the law faculty at the National University of Rwanda (NUR).
The content of the constitution drew significantly borrowed many elements from the 1962 constitution after adapting them to the political context of the day. The constitution makers were strongly inspired by the governing principles provided by the President of the Republic, the MRND central committee and the commission of political, administrative and judicial matters. In other words, the three constitution makers simply expressed in writing the wishes of the President of the Republic.
The constitution was approved during the December 1978 referendum. The text provided for a presidential term of five years with a possibility of re-election without exceeding two successive terms. The same constitution stated that in case of temporary or definite disability to exercise power, the President of the Republic would be replaced by the Secretary General of the ruling party.
In case of disability on both of them, the post of President of the Republic was supposed to be occupied by a member of the central committee of MRND who would be elected by his colleagues. To avoid duplication of power between the President and the MRND president, the 1978 constitution proposed the MRND President as the sole candidate to the presidency of the country.
The new constitution gave overwhelming powers to the MRND and its president. MRND was henceforth enshrined in the constitution. Its organs became omnipresent in the entire life of the people and country.
The 1978 constitution established a presidential structure with a very powerful executive, sometimes with clauses that seemed strange. Case in point was Article 56, which gave the President the power to be the supreme custodian of the constitution, a role which is normally played by the constitutional court. In addition, the President of the Republic was not directly accountable to CND (the equivalent of parliament today).
On the contrary, the ministers and permanent secretaries were answerable to the Parliament. In other words, the Members of Parliament could not question the President. The ministers were supposed to assume that responsibility before the CND. Incidentally, the President had the powers to dissolve the CND.
It should be noted that even if the President was answerable to CND, the latter could not threaten him since the ministers were all Members of Parliament who were appointed and could be dismissed by the President. They could not in any way challenge their boss.
The pros and cons of the Habyarimana regime will be realised cumulatively as we progress through this serialised historical narrative of Rwandan history.
Source: The New Times
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