Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Paul KAGAME
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Anastase MUREKEZI
• Assembly: Rwanda has a bicameral National Assembly (Assemblee Nationale) consisting of the Senate (Sénat) with 26 seats and the Chamber of Deputies (Chambre des Députés) with 80 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by plurality vote to serve a 7-year term.
• Prime Minister is appointed by the president.
• In the Senate (Sénat), 12 members are indirectly elected by regional governing councils to serve 8-year terms, 8 members are appointed by the President to serve 8-year terms, 4 members are appointed by the Political Organizations Forum to serve 8-year terms and 2 members are selected by Institutions of higher learning to serve 8-year terms*. In the Chamber of Deputies (Chambre des Députés), 53 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 5-year terms and 27 members are indirectly elected by special interest groups to serve 5-year terms.**

* Thirty percent of all indirectly elected Senators must be female. 12 members are elected in accordance with the national administrative entities. 4 members are designated by the Political Organizations Forum, and 2 university lecturers, of at least the rank of Associate Professor or a researcher, are elected by the academic and research staff of public universities and institutions of higher learning. The eight members appointed by the President are chosen to represent historically marginalized communities.

** Party-lists can contain no more than 80 candidates. Twenty-seven members are indirectly elected. Twenty-four seats are reserved for women, two are elected by the National Youth Council, and one is elected by the Federation of the Associations of the Disabled. Parties and candidates must also choose a symbol that will be placed on the ballot next to the name. The symbol must not be similar to one previously used and cannot be comprised of a combination of the three colors of the national flag.