By Frank Kamuntu
Three candidates are eligible to run for President in the 2024 elections slated for July. They are incumbent Head of State Paul Kagame, Frank Habineza, and Philippe Mpayimana, according to a final list published by the National Electoral Commission (NEC), on June 14.
Kagame is the flag-bearer of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF Inkotanyi); Habineza is the Chairperson of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR); while Mpayimana is an independent candidate.
While nine aspirants submitted their candidatures to run for President in the July polls, six fell short of the requirement consisting of providing a list of voters supporting their candidatures.
That is a list containing a minimum of 600 voters registered on the voters’ register, including at least 12 persons in each district, and registered on the voters’ register of the district of issuance of their national identity cards, according to the current law governing elections.
Paul Kagame
Kagame is the current Head of State of Rwanda. Among notable deeds, he led the liberation struggle as the commander of the then Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) – army wing of RPF Inkotanyi – which is credited for defeating Juvenal Habyarimana’s regime and stopping the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, and contributing to unity and peace restoration in a country that was devastated by the Genocide.
On May 3, Maj Gen Emmanuel Bayingana, speaking on behalf of RDF Chief of Defence Staff Gen Mubarakh Muganga, said that after the Genocide destroyed Rwandans’ social fabric and unity, and claimed the lives of more than a million people – generally leaving Rwanda with no hope for a future – many people thought the country would no longer be a united nation.
Bayingana said this while delivering a presentation on stopping the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and building the unity of Rwandans in a sustainable way, during an event in which the Parliament of Rwanda marked the 30th commemoration of the Genocide.
He said that some people were proposing the splitting of the country into two – one part as a country for the Hutu, another for the Tutsi. But, he said, they did not factor in the Twa in their proposals, yet they were also part of Rwanda’s social-economic classes – nor the people born from both the Hutu and Tutsi, pointing out that one would wonder what could happen to them.
But, thanks to a heroic leadership – headed by Kagame – that decided that Rwanda must be rebuilt, and unity be restored among Rwandans, indicating that the country is a stable state, not a failed state as some thought it would be the case, Bayingana observed.
Kagame has been the president of Rwanda since 2000. In the 2017 polls, he was re-elected to the presidency after a landslide victory of more than 98 per cent of the total votes cast.
Frank Habineza
According to his profile on Parliament website, Habineza has an honorary Doctorate of Humanities (Democracy and Human Rights).
He was a Member of Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies since 2018 until June 14 when President Kagame dissolved the Lower House for the 2024 election purposes.
Habineza is attempting to be the Head of State again, after his first bid failed in the 2017 presidential polls where he got 0.45 per cent of the total votes.
From August 14, 2009, up to know, Habineza has been the President/Spokesperson of Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.
From May 2018, he has been the Executive Director of African Greens Federation/ Federations des Verts Africains (AGF-FeVA). Earlier, from February 2012-May 2018, he was Programme Coordinator for Africa in Green Forum Foundation, Sweden.
Other functions he held include being the National Coordinator of Nile Basin Discourse Forum in Rwanda, from May 2006-May 2009.
From September 2005-March 2006, he was Personal Assistant to the Minister in Ministry of Lands, Environment, Forestry, Water and Mines.
From September 2000-September 2005, he was the Executive President of Rwanda Wildlife Clubs/Rwanda Environmental Conservation Organisation, while from April 2008 – to-date, he is the Board member, Global Greens Coordination (GGC) of Global Greens.
Philippe Mpayimana
Mpayimana is currently a Senior Expert in charge of Community Engagement at the Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement (MINUBUMWE), a position he has held since November 2021.
It is his second time to contest for the Head of State position after an unsuccessful attempt in 2017 when he got 0.72 per cent of the total votes in elections that the incumbent, Kagame, won by a landslide.
Before joining MINUBUMWE, Mpayimana worked in various media houses as a journalist since 1990.
He holds a master’s degree in languages, history and geography from the Université de Cergy Pontoise in Paris; and a master’s degree in journalism from Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Paris.
He is a writer and human rights activist. Since 2013, he was a teacher of French, History and Geography in various high schools.
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