For the first time, Rwandan President Paul Kagame has declared his intention to run for a fourth term in the next elections.
Recall that in March, the Rwandan government decided to align the dates of the country’s parliamentary and presidential elections, which will take place in August of 2019.
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President Kagame who in 2017, with nearly 99 percent of the vote, was elected to a third term however, said that: “Yes, I am indeed a candidate,” Kagame, who has ruled over the country with an iron fist for decades, told Jeune Afrique, a French-language news magazine, in an interview published online on Tuesday.
“I am pleased with the confidence that Rwandans have placed in me. I will always serve them, as long as I can,” the 65-year-old was quoted as saying.
Since the end of the 1994 genocide, Kagame, a former rebel chief who is widely recognised as the nation’s de facto leader, has presided over contentious constitutional amendments that have permitted him to run for a third term despite not previously having made his intentions apparent.
