EU to observe referendum on constitution

An EU election observation mission (EOM) has arrived in Rwanda ahead of a referendum to adopt a new constitution for the country, the Rwandan News Agency reported on Wednesday.

"The EOM will assess the entire referendum process, including the legal and political framework, the campaign, the voting and counting, as well as the immediate post-referendum period, with a view to the preparation of the presidential and legislative elections," it quoted an unnamed member of the six-member team as saying.

Another six members are to join the team soon, it reported.

Parliament adopted a draft constitution on 23 April that is due to come into force in July, after the referendum.

The document provides for basic human rights and state organs such as the executive and legislative arms of government. A new legislature would comprise the National Assembly with 80 members and a 26-member Senate. Assembly members would serve five-year terms and the nation's president would be eligible for election for two seven-year terms.

Rwanda's transitional period to democracy, nine years after the 1994 genocide, is due to end with presidential and parliamentary elections set for later in 2003.

Under the new constitution, Rwanda would have a legislature, with its members elected by universal suffrage for the first time since the genocide. Currently, assembly members are appointed.

Rwanda is governed by a "basic law" drawn from several texts, including the 1991 constitution and peace accords signed in 1993 in Arusha, Tanzania, by the then Hutu government and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front, now in power under President Paul Kagame.