Rwanda’s president says he will seek a third term in 2017

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has announced his intention to run for a third term in office in 2017, one week after the country voted in a referendum to change the constitution to allow him to run. “Given the importance you ascribe to this matter, I can only accept”, he said in a televised New Year address.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame attends the opening ceremony of the 24th Ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) at the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, January 30, 2015.

The EU also said the move would undermine democracy in Rwanda and called on Kagame to step down in 2017.

“I do not think our aim is to have a president for life, nor is it what I would want”, Kagame said.

In its previous statements, RNC has warned Rwandans and friends of Rwanda that, should President Kagame decide to recklessly decide to stay in power undemocratically, the likelihood of peaceful power transition becomes impossible, while instead giving way to renewed violence, destruction and bloodshed.

In a referendum last month, 98.3 percent of Rwandans voted for the amendment of the constitution, according to the National Electoral Commission.

“You have clearly expressed your choice on our country’s future”, he said, describing the constitutional changes as “worthy and wise”.

Both houses of parliament are dominated by his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).

Opponents and some worldwide observers say Kagame has effectively stifled democracy in the nation of some ten million.

The constitutional changes allow Kagame to run for another seven-year term in 2017, followed by two five-year terms afterwards.

Several African states have recently lifted or tried to lift constitutional bars to multiple presidential mandates.

With this decision, President Kagame ignores an historic opportunity to reinforce and solidify the democratic institutions the Rwandan people have for more than twenty years labored so hard to establish. In December a referendum was held which decided whether or not President Kagame could run for a third term.