Rwanda elections: MPs back move to let President Paul Kagame run for unprecedented third term

The move would require a change in the country's constitution, and a petition to that effect has already collected 3.8 million signatures
Clement Uwiringiyamana Tuesday 14 July 2015 1 comment

Over 3.8 million people - well over half of the voters - signed a petition calling for a change of Article 101 of the constitution, which limits the president to two terms Getty Images
Rwandan politicians have backed a motion to let President Paul Kagame run for a third term in office, paving the way for a referendum to amend the constitution.

A similar move by President Pierre Nkurunziza in neighbouring Burundi has provoked violent protests and fears of renewed ethnic conflict in the combustible region, but observers have suggested that violent opposition in Rwanda would be stamped out quickly.

Mr Kagame, whose ruling party has controlled the country for the past decade, has not directly said he wants to run again. But he has said he is open to persuasion that the two-term limit in the constitution needs to be changed, and a petition to that effect has collected 3.8 million signatures.

The parliamentary speaker, Donatille Mukabalisa, said MPs had voted unanimously to back the petition, adding that a referendum would be called on whether to amend the constitution. “We’ve started the process to the referendum. We shouldn’t delay the process,” she told a news conference.

Yolande Bouka, a Nairobi-based researcher for the Institute for Security Studies, said there was no chance of protests in Rwanda.

“Dissent is very violently and swiftly repressed by the government,” she said. “Therefore the likelihood of protests as we saw in Burundi and Burkina Faso or even Senegal a few years ago is quite unlikely.”

The Green party leader Frank Habineza is opposed to the constitutional amendment and has challenged it through the courts.