Rwanda : Paul Kagame formalizes his candidacy for the July 2024 presidential election

Rwanda : Paul Kagame formalizes his candidacy for the July 2024 presidential election

Paul Kagame, current Rwandan president, Friday presented his candidacy to the electoral commission for his 4th term. His highway is almost empty. His opponents, excluded from the electoral race, are already criticizing the electoral process.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Accompanied by the staff of his super powerful political party the RPF and his wife, Paul Kagame arrived around 11 a.m. at the office of the national electoral commission, NEC. Smiling and greeting everyone, the strong man from Kigali appeared more than reassured.

He is the first to present his candidacy for the presidential election for July 15. In power since 2000, he is credited with the spectacular development of Rwanda, after the genocide committed against the Tutsis in 1994.

Paul Kagame, who is regularly accused of flouting freedom of expression and repressing any critical voice, did not speak on Friday.

But he has already announced that he does not intend to run for another term after this one. He indicated this at the beginning of May when his party appointed him to represent its colors.

“The burden you make me carry, I accept. But, I have already told you, I will repeat it again, I hope that you will choose another leader to relieve me and replace me,” he insisted in front of an audience of three thousand delegates.

Before adding, “I am not the only one destined to lead. And I wouldn’t want to choose it myself because you are capable of it. However, I could make my contribution in the process of choosing a good candidate, who can do more than what I have accomplished and move our country forward.”

Support and exclusion…

Almost all the other candidates, mainly from his opposition, are either excluded or have resigned themselves to supporting his candidacy.

Among his supporters, we can cite six political groups including the PSD which heads the Senate, the PL at the top of the National Assembly, the PDI and the PDC which are in principle part of the presidential movement. They chose to participate in the legislative elections only.

Explanations, “we do not have a candidate who can compete with Paul Kagame”, indicated the leaders of these political groups in turn.

That leaves those of the radical opposition like the “Green Party” of honorable Franck Habineza. He declared that he will run for president next July.

A 47-year-old MP, the latter only obtained less than 1% of the votes in the 2017 presidential election. But for him, whether he wins the presidential election or not, the main thing is that certain elements of his program are implemented even by the ruling party.

“In my 2017 social project, there was for example the introduction of new technology on satellites and the purchase of drones to secure our country, this was done. Reform in the agriculture sector, education, nature conservation and natural disaster management, all this was in our manifesto,” he boasted in Rwandan media.

And he admired, “So, more than 70% of the elements of our party’s social project are taken into account and implemented. The main thing is not just to win the elections, in other words we win in another form. So, we are determined to confront the ruling party and we will succeed.”

Other critical figures have had their efforts rejected. This includes Victoire Ingabire and her lawyer, Bernard Ntaganda.

The High Court of Justice invalidated Victoire Ingabire’s case because she had spent more than eight years in prison. She describes this decision as a bad departure for the 2024 elections.

“If we are in a country where there is no rule of law, do you think we can have free and transparent elections? Because now it proves that these elections are going to be exclusive. If the opposition is always excluded by the courts, it is not a sign of democracy,” castigated this very critical Hutu figure, regularly accused of negating the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda.

Dissatisfied candidate…

The other challenger who recently expressed his desire is the young opponent Diane Rwigara.

“A new chapter for Rwanda begins now. Together, we will make history! Join me as I run for president. Let’s go,” she wrote on her X account (formerly Twitter). According to several analysts, she will have to make a lot of effort, almost unimaginable, to confront Paul Kagame, the strong man of the country whose rebellion put an end to the genocide of the Tutsis in 1994.

Diane Rwigara had wanted to run for president in August 2017, but her candidacy was rejected by the electoral commission “due to falsification of signatures for her support”.

Arrested and tried for falsification of documents but also, with her mother and sister, for “incitement to insurrection”, she was acquitted in 2018 of these “baseless” accusations, according to the Court.

According to analysts, Diane Rwigara wants to run out of discontent.

Recently, the Rwigara family had to face a new tragedy when Anne, Diane’s sister, was found dead at her home in California at the end of December 2023. A sudden death, linked to the failure of several organs, which left his loved ones in shock.

In 2015, the patriarch, businessman Assinapol Rwigara, a former financier of the ruling RPF party, died in a road accident.

From then on, Diane Rwigara distanced herself from the RPF after the death of her father. She, like her family, had contested this version and expressed doubts about the circumstances of this tragedy and denounced the relentlessness of the authorities against them.

Accusations systematically rejected by the Rwandan authorities.

Current Rwandan President Paul Kagame has always won the presidential election each time with more than 90% of the votes in 2003, 2010 and 2017.

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Paul Kagame submits his candidacy to NEC President Oda Gasinzigwa, May 17, 2024, photo credit : Igihe

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