Rwanda to hold presidential election in July next year

KIGALI, Rwanda

Rwanda will hold presidential elections in July next year, the country’s electoral commission announced on Tuesday.

The electoral roadmap showed that the presidential polls in which incumbent President Paul Kagame is to seek reelection for a fourth term will be conducted on July 15, 2024.

Rwandans will on the same day elect their 53 legislators, according to the roadmap.

Electoral campaigns for president and parliamentary candidates will begin on June 22, 2024 and end on July 13, 2024.

It is the first time the legislative and presidential poll will be held concurrently following an amendment to the constitution earlier this year.

In September, Kagame told a pan-African magazine that he will run for a fourth term.

Besides Frank Habineza, of the opposition Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, who has been endorsed as a candidate by his party, other competitors are yet to declare their candidatures.

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

He 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 7-year third term in 2017, but reduced the presidential term limits to five years from 2024.

He was reelected as the chairperson of the ruling Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) with 99.8% in April this year.