Rwandan President Paul Kagame has said for the first time that he plans to run for a fourth term in elections due to be held next year.

“Yes, I am indeed a candidate,” Kagame, who has ruled over the country with an iron fist for decades, told Jeune Afrique, a French-language news magazine, in an interview published online on Tuesday.

“I am pleased with the confidence that Rwandans have placed in me. I will always serve them, as long as I can,” the 65-year-old was quoted as saying.

The Rwandan government in March decided to synchronise the dates for its parliamentary and presidential elections, which are due to be held in August next year.

Kagame had previously not made his intentions clear but has presided over controversial constitutional amendments that allowed him to serve a third term.

A former rebel chief, Kagame has been regarded as the country’s de facto leader since the end of the 1994 genocide.

He won a third term in 2017, taking home nearly 99 percent of the votes.

AFP

SmartPolician:
Which iron fist?

The people of Rwanda love that man and always say good things about him.

And Paul Kagame has been doing a great job in the country.

That's all that matters.

festacman:


Praise-singing, graveyard quietness and choreographed smiles are all deceitful hallmarks of dictatorship because behind the façade you see is an unhappy mentally-shackled people yearning for fresh air and freedom.

Look, the disadvantage of what Paul Kagame is doing is that for several years, everything will be about him and revolve around him so much that there is not solid succession plan in place and the political class and the citizens have poor democracy learning curves. Yes, there are physical developments but developmental mentality will be missing among the civil servants and citizens.

A dangerous lacuna is created and if Paul Kagame dropped dead today, everything he builds crumbles from infighting for power. It happened in Ivory Coast. It happened in Somalia. And if he succeeds in installing his son, the damage goes on and day of reckoning is merely postponed.

SmartPolician:


First, people don't sing the praises of Paul Kagame. That country mirrors hope that a purely black African country can still make progress, because all facts show otherwise.

It's even interesting that Paul Kagame comes from a minority tribe and has successfully won elections several times. It tells you how mentally advanced those guys are.

I have lots of friends who have holidayed in Rwanda, and they all have good things to say about the country. Videos of Rwanda are all over the internet. You can see the progress a landlocked country that survived a genocide has made under one man who has big dreams for his country.

Compare that to North Korea where people are scared to talk about the Little Rocket Man because they fear for their precious lives. Mind you, Rwanda is not a communist country, so I don't know what you are writing about.

I don't support Paul Kagame being in power for a long time. However, nobody should cry more than the bereaved. Don't use what happened in other African countries as basis for what will happen in Rwanda.

Coming to if something happens to Kagame, na you wan kill am? Besides, for that country to have made progress - without tribal wars after the genocide - by allowing a man from the minority to rule them for this time, doesn't it tell you that those people don't think like the rest of us?

I tell people that most countries that don't work lack patriotic people. If you people are patrotic, there's nothing you cannot achieve as a people. This is a fact...

SmartPolician:
Which iron fist?

The people of Rwanda love that man and always say good things about him.

And Paul Kagame has been doing a great job in the country.

That's all that matters.

SmartPolician:
Which iron fist?

The people of Rwanda love that man and always say good things about him.

And Paul Kagame has been doing a great job in the country.

That's all that matters.

Racoon:
Military coup loading in Rwanda soonest.

festacman:


Praise-singing, graveyard quietness and choreographed smiles are all deceitful hallmarks of dictatorship because behind the façade you see is an unhappy mentally-shackled people yearning for fresh air and freedom.

Look, the disadvantage of what Paul Kagame is doing is that for several years, everything will be about him and revolve around him so much that there is not any solid succession plan in place and the political class and the citizens have poor democracy learning curves. Yes, there are physical developments but developmental mentality will be missing among the civil servants and citizens.

A dangerous lacuna is created and if Paul Kagame dropped dead today, everything he builds crumbles from infighting for power. It happened with Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Ivory Coast. It happened with Mohamed Siad Barre in Somalia. And if he succeeds in installing his son, the damage goes on and day of reckoning is merely postponed.