Frank Habineza, the president of Democratic Green Party of Rwanda. PHOTO | FILE
Rwanda’s main opposition party says it is confident it will halt the process to amend the constitution to remove presidential term limits.
The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR) expressed the sentiments after the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that it has the competence to hear the case.
READ: Green Party case set for Sept 9 ruling
State Attorneys had sought to block the case seeking to nullify what DGPR calls ‘unconstitutional attempts’ to remove presidential term limits to allow President Paul Kagame to contest again in 2017.
The State lawyers had argued that the Supreme Court had no competence to hear cases related to constitution or any other reforms in national laws which were done through parliament, which operates independently.
However, using jurisprudence of cases from different countries, a panel of Supreme Court Judges chaired by Immaculee Nyirinkwaya dismissed the arguments and ruled that it had the competence to hear the case, which was filed by the Rwandan Green’s on June 3.
The constitution
“As the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court finds that it has the competence provided for by the law to hear a case related to protecting the country’s constitution if such a need arises.
“This is so especially if the petitioning party provides convincing grounds to indicate that there is an ongoing process that would lead to violating the constitution of the republic and as such, this court finds that it can go ahead and hear the case filed by the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda,” the Judge said.
The substantive hearing will resume on September 23.
Despite the ongoing campaign, President Kagame was yet to declare whether he would seek a third term in 2017.
Last week, the US said it would not back plans to amend the constitution to allow President Kagame to continue.
