Kagame seeks 4th term as Rwanda's president amid Western concerns

KIGALI, Rwanda

Rwanda’s incumbent President Paul Kagame on Friday presented his candidacy seeking reelection for a fourth term in the presidential election scheduled for July 15, despite concerns, especially from the West.

“I’m back in the race,” Kagame said briefly while handing over a file containing his nomination papers to the Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission Oda Gasinzigwa, as formal candidature submissions commenced at the country’s electoral body in the capital Kigali.

Kagame first became president in 2000, and won the last election in August 2017 for a seven-year term with 98.63% of the vote, according to official figures.

A candidate of the ruling party, Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), Kagame is eligible to seek reelection following a 2015 constitutional amendment that allowed him to run for three more terms.

The constitutional changes allowed Kagame to run for a seven-year third term in 2017 but reduced the presidential term limits to five years from 2024.

Kagame, 66, was reelected as the chairperson of the RPF with 99.8% in April.

He is highly expected to win reelection after major opposition parties endorsed his candidacy.

Last September, Kagame told a pan-African magazine that he was not bothered by the opinion of the West about his bid for reelection after more than two decades in power amid criticism of stifling the opposition.

Kagame said what Western powers think about democracy “is not our problem.”

Rwanda’s high court in March this year rejected opposition politician and dissident Victoire Ingabire’s request to be cleared of legal ban on convicted persons to enable her run in the presidential polls.

Ingabire was sentenced in 2013 to 15 years in prison for terrorism and genocide denial.

The 55-year-old spent eight years in prison before receiving a presidential pardon in 2018.

She had asked the court to overturn a legal ban on convicted aspirants who have been jailed for six months or longer and allow her to contest in this year’s polls.

But the court ruled it had found Ingabire's request was “without merit.”

Ingabire described the court’s decision as “a stark reminder of the barriers to political participation and the urgent need for reform in our country's governance.”

A total of 9.5 million Rwandans are eligible to vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections, according to the country's electoral body.