The East African Diaspora Media Watch (EADM)

fShare

Tweet

In Summary: Rwandan nationals in the United States will join their compatriots in the Diaspora this Thursday August 03, 2017 to elect a new president in a poll that has attracted three contestants. The contenders include the incumbent President Paul Kagame of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, and Philippe Mpayimana, an independent candidate. The winner of the elections will receive a 7-year term to lead the Central African country considered a rising economic powerhouse in the region. In the United States, 10 polling stations have been gazetted for Rwandan nationals in this continental country to cast their votes. As Samuel Muwanguzi writes, incumbent President Paul Kagame is seeking a third term in office following a 2015 referendum in which Rwandans voted to lift presidential term limits  with an overwhelming endorsement of 98.4 percent of the vote.

Dallas, Texas—Rwandan nationals in the United States will join their compatriots in the Diaspora this Thursday August 03, 2017 to elect a new president in a poll that has attracted three contestants. Voting in the Diaspora will be held a day ahead of the national poll in Rwanda that is scheduled to take place on Friday August 04, 2017. In the United States, 10 polling stations have been gazetted for Rwandan nationals in this continental country to cast their votes, Immaculate Busingye, the vice President for the US-Rwandan Community Abroad (USRCA) told the EADM in an interview here Sunday. A resident of the DFW in Texas, Ms. Immaculate Busingye deputizes Prof. Aimable Twagirimana of Buffalo, NY, the President for USRCA.

The three contenders in the forthcoming Rwanda presidential elections include the incumbent President Paul Kagame of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, and Philippe Mpayimana, an independent candidate. The winner of the elections will receive a 7-year term to lead the Central African country, considered a rising economic powerhouse in the region. Approximately 6.8 million Rwandan are expected cast their vote on August 3 and August 4, electoral officials told reporters in Kigali, Rwanda recently. Thousands of The US-based Rwandan nationals make up part of the nearly 45,000 Rwandans living in the Diaspora who registered to vote in the forthcoming elections, according to elections official said in Kigali, Rwanda recently.

Two of the 10 polling stations in the United States are located at the Rwanda Embassy premises in Washington DC and at the Rwandan mission offices in New York City, Ms. Immaculate Busingye, the vice President for USRCA said. The other polling stations located in various cities across the USA include Dallas Fort wort (DFW) in Texas; Phoenix in Arizona; Grand Rapids in Michigan; South Bend in Indiana;  Portland in Maine; and Atlanta in Georgia. Two polling stations, Sacramento and Los Angeles have been designated for Rwandan nationals resident in California and neighboring states. Ms. Immaculate Busingye told the EADM that only nationals of Rwandan origin who registered to vote will be allowed to cast their votes in this election. “No voting will be allowed without prior registration,” she said, adding, “all voters, 18 years and above, are expected to have no criminal record.

The criteria for selecting the cities where the polling stations are located were based, among others, on the population of Rwandan nationals living in a particular State, the accessibility of the respective city and the proximity of neighboring metropolitan areas, Ms. Immaculate Busingye said. The decision was also informed by the fact that Rwandans are prepared to car-pool and drive to their nearest polling stations to cast their votes with minimum economic burdens to their budgets, she said. “Previously, we used to have only 2 polling stations; New York & Washington DC but an increase to 10 is a remarkable improvement in an effort to bring the service nearer to the people,” the USRCA  vice president said.

“Spreading out polling stations in all states and major cities in the United States would require more logistics and would be expensive. That is why we think that the 10 are sufficient for now,” Ms. Busingye said. Some of the polling officials will come from the embassy staff and will work jointly with local leaders in the respective communities, Ms. Busingye said. “In the DFW area, for example, the elections will be supervised by Mr. Lawrence Manzi, First Counselor and Political Affairs at the Rwanda Embassy in Washington DC,” Ms. Immaculate Busingye told the EADM.

“I appeal to all eligible Rwandan nationals living in the USA to come out and vote as part of their civic duty because our voice and vote count,” Ms. Busingye said. “We want this election to ensure that we move forward from where we came from, where we are, and to confidently propel us to a brighter future,” she said. She told the EADM that Rwandans in the Diaspora are voting a day earlier to ensure that the tallies are in Rwanda by the end of the voting on Friday August 4th to add up to the votes cast in Rwanda.  Preliminary election results will be announced on the night of August 4 but the final result details are expected between August 9 and 19, officials said. The voting population in Rwanda consists of 3.7 million (54 percent) women, 3.1 million (46 percent) men, 3.1 million (45 percent) youth and 40.826 (0.6 percent) from the diaspora, the National Electoral Commission of Rwanda announced recently.

In this election, President Paul Kagame will be seeking a third term in office following a 2015 referendum in which Rwandans voted against change and chose to lift presidential term limits originally enshrined in the Constitution. The move to lift presidential term limits was overwhelmingly endorsed in a referendum with a 98.4 percent of the vote.  Paul Kagame, 59, first served as Vice President and Minister of Defense between 1994 and 2000 soon after the RPA captured power that ended the genocide in which nearly a million Tutsis were killed by government militias, the Intarahamwe. Widely considered Rwanda's de facto leader after the war, Kagame took over office in 2000 when his predecessor, Pasteur Bizimungu, resigned. Paul Kagame won the 2003 presidential elections with more than 95 percent of the vote, and garnered 93 percent in 2010. His party, the RPF won the 2008 parliamentary elections with about 79 percent of the votes, and took 76 percent of the 2013 vote. 

Rwanda’s Presidential candidate Frank Habineza, 40, founder and leader  of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda  was the first opposition candidate to seek nomination  to contest against the incumbent Paul Kagame in the 2017 election. The opposition leader, Frank Habineza and his Democratic Green Party of Rwanda had originally threatened to boycott the election but later abandoned its position when the government rejected their demands to institute electoral reforms.

Independent presidential candidate Philippe Mpayimana, 47, has drawn media Philippe Mpayimana attention with his campaign promise of introducing birth control measures restricting women to only three children. His policy initiative has attracted both support and opposition in a country that is experiencing a contest between liberal and conservative views.

fShare

Tweet