Former Speaker Mukabalisa was elected to the Senate while Ndangiza Murangwa was reelected.
The former Speaker of the Lower Chamber of Deputies, Donatille Mukabalisa, and Hadija Murangwa Ndangiza have been elected to the Senate of the country by the National Consultative Forum of Political Organizations, the umbrella organisation of registered political parties in Rwanda.
The lawyer and head of the Liberal Party (PL), led the 4th Parliament, having taken over the position in 2013 and was reelected in 2018.
Ndangiza Murangwa on the other hand was a senator in the third legislature of the Rwandan Senate representing the political parties organisation.
Before joining the senate, she was a consultant in charge of strategy and institutional stability at the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Rwanda.
The two join other elected senators on the provision list issued by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) earlier this week from the senatorial elections held in the four provinces of the country and the City of Kigali on Monday, September 16.
The elections, which are held through electoral colleges in national administrative entities and academia, recorded a voter turnout of 97.02 percent, leading to the election of 12 senators out of the 32 candidates who were vying to join the upper chamber of Parliament.
Among those elected to the upper house in Laetitia Nyinawamwiza and Amandin Rugira, who will represent the Northern Province, who got 246 votes (73.00%) and 211 votes (62.61%), respectively, while the Southern Province voted Adrie Umuhire, Pelagie Uwera and Sosthène Cyitatire, who served as a clerk to parliament for 25 years. The latter two will both return to the house, having been members of the senate.
In Eastern Province, John Bonds Bideri, Alvera Mukabaramba and Fulgence Nsengiyumva were reelected to the Senate while Western Province voted Marie Rose Mureshyankwano, Emmanuel Havugimana and Cyprien Niyomugabo, who will all be returning to the house.
City of Kigali, which has one seat in the Senate, reelected Esperance Nyirasafari, who in the previous term served as a senate vice president, while public and private universities and institutions of higher learning elected Telesphore Ngarambe and Penine Uwimbabazi on September 17.
Political parties are expected to elect two more Senators, while the Head of State also maintains a prerogative to appoint four more senators at different times, to complete the total number of 26 senators.
