Women won at least 44 out of 80 seats in Rwanda's legislative elections, making the central African country the first in the world where men are outnumbered in the national assembly, the electoral commission said Thursday. According to provisional results, women won 20 of the 53 seats attributed in direct elections.
In Rwanda's unique voting system, another 24 seats are reserved for women in an indirect vote. According to an official close to the youth council, a woman may also have won one of the two seats reserved for Rwandan youth.
With 44 guaranteed seats, women would account for at least 55 percent of the lower chamber in Rwanda. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, that would place Rwanda far ahead of Sweden, where women account for 47 percent of parliament, and third-placed Cuba, where 43.2 percent of MPs are women. According to provisional results announced on Monday, President Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front had already secured a majority in the elections which started Monday and closed Thursday with the vote for the last seat reserved.