POLITICS-RWANDA: First Multi-Party Elections Since the 1994 Genocide

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Aug 20 2003 (IPS) - Voters in Rwanda go to the polls on Aug. 25 to elect a new president, in the first multi-party elections since the 1994 genocide in which up to 800,000 Rwandese were slaughtered by Hutu militias, known as interahamwe, or those who fight together.

The ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) is confident that it will win the polls.

In an interview with IPS this week, Rwandese ambassador to Kenya, Seth Kamanzi said the ruling party’s candidate, Paul Kagame, has shown a bigger popularity. “The outcome will be a landslide victory for Kagame,” he said.

Others vying for the seat include the main opposition candidate Faustin Twagiramungu, who some regard as a threat to the ruling party. Twagiramungu was leader of opposition party, Mouvement Democratique Republican (MDR), before it was disbanded by government last month, for allegedly using ethnicity to promote his campaign.

Twagiramungu, a former Prime Minister, returned to Rwanda in May after spending eight years in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

Last week he was summoned by the state-appointed National Electoral Commission to answer charges related to promoting ethnic hatred in his campaign leaflets.

The commission alleges that Twagiramungu, a Hutu, has been calling on the majority Hutu – who make up 85 percent of the country’s population – to turn against the Tutsi-led regime in Rwanda by voting for him.

Twagiramungu has denied those claims, which he says were part of state propaganda to derail his campaign.

One of his supporters, based in Nairobi, told IPS in a telephone interview that Twagiramungu was being targeted by government for challenging the corruption in Rwanda. “He feels that the government is misusing state resources,” said the source, who asked for anonymity.

Nepomuscene Jean Nayinzira is also contesting as an independent candidate. He was chairperson of National Unity and Reconciliation Committee until last year.

Alivera Mukabaramba, the first woman to run for president in Rwanda, has been a member of parliament on MDR ticket since 1999. She represents a new little known party, Parti Pour Progres et Concorde (PPC), which was formed in May.

Critics say she is counting on women votes. And that she is a political novice.

Kamanzi claims that none of the opposition parties in Rwanda poses any threat to the ruling party.

Next week’s elections, as well as the parliamentary polls which will follow in September, will mark a momentous period in the history of Rwanda. It is the first time that the people of Rwanda will be electing a head of state since a transitional government was appointed nine years ago.

“All elections under previous regimes were based on one-party system. Therefore, people had no choice,” said Kamanzi.

Grace Mumbariza, a journalist in the capital Kigali, says the mood in Rwanda is one of excitement and in support of incumbent president Kagame. “This is exhibited by the large turnout during his campaign rallies in various parts of the country,” he said in an e-mail interview.

He added: “The self-proclaimed threat to government, Twagiramungu is not a favourite of the people. The majority feels that he has been out of the country for so long and has not participated in rebuilding the nation. There is no way he can expect people to vote for him.”

Some Rwandans living in Kenya agree. “The way Kagame has reconstructed the country economically and addressed the issue of ethnicity in nine years is just amazing,” says Godfrey Kyizza.

“Rwandans should remember that the 1994 genocide was fuelled by ethnic hatred,” he warns.

And as the big day draws nigh, some fear that withdrawal of funding by The Netherlands over alleged disappearance and killing of political figures, may affect the polling process.

But Kamanzi maintains that the polls will go ahead as scheduled with or without the Dutch funding. “No one has been killed and no one has disappeared in Rwanda,” he said.

“The decision to withdraw the funding is based on misinformation and The Netherlands will be embarrassed when later they discover the truth,” he said.

Kamanzi claimed that the Dutch have fallen for a “trap laid by Twagiramungu to attract sympathy and show that Rwanda government is a repressive regime.”

“Only Twagiramungu knows where these people are,” Kamanzi said.

Last week the Dutch government withdrew 281,000 U.S. dollars over reports of alleged disappearance of five opposition leaders in Rwanda. The Dutch are demanding that Rwanda government produce the missing men.

Netherlands is one of Rwanda’s key financial supporters for the presidential and parliamentary elections.

Rwandan opposition politician, Juvenal Mbazamihigo, was shot dead in Yaounde, Cameroun, earlier this month by unidentified gunmen, in what the opposition term as political murder.