Indirect parliamentary elections were held in Rwanda in 1957.
The Decree of 14 July 1952 by the Belgian authorities introduced an element of democracy to the Rwandan political system. A complicated electoral system was created, which involved seven stages of elections to eventually elect the National Superior Council (French: Conseil Superieur du Pays).[1] The system was modified from the 1953–54 elections with all men aged 18 or over able to vote for the Sub-Chiefdom Councils, as voting had previously been restricted to notables.[2]
| Council | Elected members | Ex officio members | Other members | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–10 members elected by all men aged 18 and over | Sub-chiefs | |||
| Chiefdom Council | 10–18 members, 5–9 elected by sub-chiefs and 5–9 elected by notables | Chiefs | ||
| Territorial Council | Sub-chiefs elected from amongst their own and notables elected by Chiefdom Councils | Chiefs | ||
| Superior Council | 6 chiefs elected from their own number, 9 notables elected by Territorial Councils | King, presidents of the Territorial Councils | Up to 8 co-opted |
The elections in the sub-chiefdoms were held in 1956, with elections to the Chiefdom Councils Territorial Councils and the Superior Council following in 1957.[3]
| Council | Members | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hutus | Tutsis | Total | ||||||
| Elected chiefs | Elected notables | Co-opted | Elected chiefs | Elected notables | Ex officio | Co-opted | ||
| Sub-chiefdom councils | 0 | 2,261 | 0 | 0 | 1,292 | 603 | 0 | 4,160 |
| Chiefdom councils | 0 | 107 | 0 | 298 | 245 | 54 | 0 | 704 |
| Territorial councils | 0 | 21 | 0 | 46 | 71 | 46 | 0 | 184 |
| Superior Council | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 33 |
| align=left colspan=13 | Source: Sternberger et al. | |||||||