Rwanda’s Supreme Court has ruled that President Paul Kagame could run for a third seven-year term, rejecting an attempt by the main opposition party to block changes to the country’s constitution.
It would be recalled that the Kagame-controlled parliament backed a motion in July to let him run again as leader of the east African state.
The court in its ruling, said “all depends on the opinions of the people”.
Reacting to the development, the opposition Democratic Green Party, which brought the case before the Supreme Court, said it would continue to push for protection of existing constitutional term limits.
“We are not happy but we’ve not given up, we are going to appeal to the president,” Green party leader, Frank Habineza, told newsmen after the court’s decision.
Former rebel leader, Kagame, who came to power ii 1994 , won international and domestic praise for rebuilding Rwanda after the genocide, in which 800,000 people, most of them Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were massacred.
But international donors have criticised his suppression of dissent and any move to change the constitution as the US said this month it “opposed those in positions of power changing constitutions solely for their political self-interest”.
Meanwhile, experts say that the Kigali court ruling is likely to attract attention in other African nations like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, where term limits are under similar pressure.
Reuters/NAN.
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