Close the Campaign for Rwanda’s Presidential Elections With Kagame as Big Favorite
President Kagame during his last campaign day in in Nyagatare District. Photo: @EasternRpf
July 13, 2024 Hour: 1:13 pm
The campaign for the presidential and parliamentary elections in Rwanda next Monday ended this Saturday with the holding of rallies, among them the president of the country, Paul Kagame, great favorite to get a fourth term.
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Kagame, 66, closed his campaign in the district of Kicukiro in the capital, Kigali, where he was cheered by thousands of followers who wore the red, white and blue colors of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
“What has happened in Rwanda over the last thirty years is a political phenomenon that few foreigners can easily understand,” said Kagame, in power since 2000.
“You can’t fake unity, you can’t fake enthusiasm, you can’t fake a change like this, you can’t fake development; you can’t pretend to be the RPF,” the president said, alluding to the reconstruction of this small East African country after the genocide.
The president will compete for the presidency with opponents Frank Habineza, 47, and journalist Philippe Mpayimana, 54, who also closed the campaign in Kigali in events much less crowded than the FPR.
Habineza is the leader of the only party that exercises some opposition to the government, the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR), while Mpayimana is an independent and unpopular candidate.
Since coming to power, Kagame has gained international recognition for its economic successes and the reconstruction of the country after the 1994 genocide, which killed at least 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus in just over three months.
Some 9.5 million voters have registered for the elections, which will coincide for the first time with the presidential and parliamentary elections.
Polling stations in the country will open at 7AM on Monday, July 15, in the presidential and parliamentary elections, and will be closed at 3PM, according to the National Electoral Commission (NEC), it is expected that vote counting will begin as soon as voting stops.
Fuente: The News Times // EFE
