By Brian Okoth
Rwandans will go to the ballot on Monday, July 15 to elect their next set of leaders, including the president.
Three people – the incumbent President Paul Kagame, Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana – will run for president.
Rwandans will also directly vote for 53 members of parliament. Some 589 candidates will take part in the parliamentary elections.
Rwanda's parliament, officially known as the Chamber of Deputies, has 80 members.
Presidential and parliamentary polls held on same day
After the direct elections, the remaining 27 members of parliament are elected by specific councils. Twenty-four of them must be women. The National Youth Council elects two people, and the Association of the Disabled elects one person.
Both the president and members of parliament serve five-year terms, according to the constitution.
In 2023, Rwanda passed a constitutional amendment stipulating that both the presidential election and the parliamentary elections must be held on the same day.
In the 2018 parliamentary elections, President Kagame's party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), won 40 seats, followed by the Social Democratic Party's five, and Party Imberakuri and the Democratic Green Party, which won two seats each.
The senate
Rwanda also has a 26-member senate.
In the senate, 12 members are indirectly elected by local councils, eight are appointed by the president, four are appointed by the Forum of Political Organisations, and two are selected by institutions of higher learning. All senate members serve five-year terms.
Rwanda's electoral agency, the National Electoral Commission (NEC), has seven commissioners, including the chairperson and vice-chairperson.
The commission serves a three-year mandate, which is renewable once. At least two of the seven commissioners must be lawyers and at least 30% of the commission must be women.
Election qualifications
For the nomination and appointment of NEC commissioners, the government presents names to the senate for approval and commissioners are thereafter appointed by presidential order.
For a person to qualify as a voter in Rwanda, he or she must be a Rwandan citizen, and be at least 18 years of age.
People convicted of genocide, murder or rape are ineligible to vote. Prisoners and refugees are also not allowed to vote.
For the presidential candidates, they must be of Rwandan nationality, or have at least one parent of Rwandan nationality. Other requirements include they must not have served more than six months in prison, and must be at least 35 years of age, as well as be a resident of Rwanda at the time of submission of candidacy.
Kagame seeks fourth term
Kagame, who has ruled Rwanda for more than two decades, will be seeking a fourth term.
The 66-year-old won Rwanda's elections in 2003, 2010 and most recently, 2017.
The least he scored in the three elections was 93% of the vote – and that was in 2010.
In the 2017 polls, he got nearly 99% of the vote.
Big margin of victory
The big margin of victory has often raised questions in some quarters, with some saying elections there are more of a formality to legitimise a process whose outcome is all too clear.
But to Kagame's supporters, the president has put in the work to develop and unite Rwanda, which witnessed the grim events of 1994 genocide.
This year's presidential election had initially attracted nine aspirants, but six, including Kagame's vocal critic Diane Rwigara, were barred for failing to meet qualifications.
Same candidates once again
Kagame, Habineza and Mpayimana are the same candidates who took part in the 2017 presidential poll.
That year, Kagame won with 6.7 million votes, Mpayimana got 0.7% or 49,000 votes, and Habineza got 0.5% or 33,000 votes.
Fifty-four-year-old Mpayimana is a senior expert in community engagement at Rwanda's ministry of national unity and civic engagement.
He previously worked as a journalist in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after spending years in exile. He is also a published author.
Campaign pledges
One of his books is about democracy in Rwanda, and another about the life of refugees in Rwanda.
In the ongoing campaigns, he has pledged to reduce the number of members of parliament in Rwanda – from 80 to 65 – to improve efficiency, as well as improve the education sector and boost food security.
After coming third in the 2017 presidential election, Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party successfully ran for parliament in September 2018.
Habineza spent time in exile
He served as a lawmaker until June 15, 2024, when President Kagame dissolved parliament ahead of elections.
Habineza founded his Democratic Green Party in 2009 after ditching Kagame's party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
However, Habineza could not secure registration of his party until 2013.
Between 2010 and 2012, he lived in exile in Sweden.
'Stable leadership'
The 47-year-old, who is a trained public administrator, says gaining political freedom in Rwanda has taken a lot of sacrifice.
In this year's campaigns, he has promised to remove taxes on land, lower value-added tax, improve access to health care and education, as well as decongest prisons by lifting the 30-day pretrial detention of suspects.
The incumbent President Kagame has pledged stable and development-oriented leadership, as well as promoting unity among Rwandans. His pet-project is to improve Rwanda's sport infrastructure.
Rwanda's electoral agency says 9.7 million people have registered as voters.
➤ Click here to follow our WhatsApp channel for more stories.
