Summary report of the Senate plenary session of August 25, 2020 on the setting up of the members of the Senate Bureau and adoption of the program of activities for the week running from 22 to 31 October 2020

The year two thousand and twenty, the twenty-fifth day of August, senators met in the Senate Chamber for the second plenary session of the Sixth Legislature to elect the members of the Bureau.

This session, which was led at the beginning by the Senior Senator, Honourable Jean Bosco KURISANSUMA, and at the end by the elected Speaker, Right Honourable Emmanuel SINZOHAGERA, was attended by 39 senators. It began with a prayer at 10.05 minutes and ended at 11.15 minutes.

Opening the session, Honourable Jean Bosco KURISANSUMA first welcomed all present senators. Then, he read the judgment of the Constitutional Court RCCB 398 of August 21, 2020 which declares the compliance of the Senate’s Internal Rules with the Constitution of the Republic of Burundi.

Since the activity on today’s agenda was the establishment of the Senate Bureau, the President of the session then read articles 21, 22 and 23 of the Rules, which envisage the procedure to be followed in this area.

Subsequently, Honorable Jean Bosco KURISANSUMA called on for the nominations for the position of the Senate Speaker; First Deputy-Speaker of the Senate and Second Deputy-Speaker of the Senate. It should be noted that for each of the three vacancies, only one application was each time registered.

Thus, for the post of President, Honorable SINZOHAGERA Emmanuel was elected by 38 votes in and 1 abstention out of 39 voters or 97% of the votes cast. Honorable SINZOHAGERA Emmanuel is the Senate Speaker of the Republic of Burundi.

For the post of First Deputy-Speaker and Second Deputy-Speaker, Honourable NJEBARIKANUYE Spès-Caritas and Honorable NSHIMIRIMANA Cyriaque were elected respectively by 38 votes and 1 abstention on the 39 voting senators, or 97% of the votes cast. Thus, Honorable NJEBARIKANUYE Spès-Caritas is the First Deputy-Speaker of the Senate and Honorable NSHIMIRIMANA Cyriaque, the Senate Second Deputy-Speaker.

At the end of the elections, Honorable KURISANSUMA Jean Bosco, who led the work since the beginning of the session, gave way to the new Bureau to continue and proceed with the closing of the activities on the agenda of the day.

After a thank you note from the new Senate Speaker and the hand-over and resumption ceremonies between the outgoing and incoming Bureaus, the proceedings of the session ended in a festive atmosphere over a glass of beer.