Dr.Frank HabinezaCentral Africa Rwanda 

Frank Habineza has joined the uphill battle to dethrone longtime ruler Paul Kagame

Dr. Frank Habineza leader of The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, has submitted all credentials for Presidential candidacy to the National Electoral Commission, today, the 12th of June 2017 according to an announcement made available to the Africa Global Village by the party spokes Person.

According to the Rwandan constitution and all electoral laws and instructions, the requirement for competing for the Presidency require that the persons Confirmation of Rwandan nationality, document or Letter confirming single citizenship(To Rwanda), verifiable Birth Certificate, Certificate of criminal record, proving that the candidate has not been convicted for more than 6 months, Political party confirmation, that the candidate represents the party, Confirmation that one of the parents is a Rwandan by origin, Act of birth proving citizenship of parents, Certificate of Residence and finally  Letter confirming that all documents submitted are true.

The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda is very confident that their preferred candidate Dr. Frank Habineza this has met all the requirements to compete.

In its first year, the party made six unsuccessful attempts to register. As of mid-August 2010 the party was still not registered, and therefore was unable to submit a candidate for the August 2010 Presidential elections that saw Paul Kagame re-elected.

Background

Habineza was born in Mityana, Uganda on 22 February 1977. He attended the National University of Rwanda from 1999 to 2004, graduating in Political and Administrative Sciences with a major in Public Administration. While at University he started a student association campaigning for environment protection. He later became a personal assistant to the Minister of Lands, Environment, Water, Forestry and Mines, Drocella Mugorewera. He was the official correspondent of Rwanda Newsline and UMUSESO while he was a student in Butare. He also worked for the former Rwanda Herald Newspaper, whose publisher Asuman Bikika was declared ‘persona non grata’ in mid-2002.

Habineza was for three years (2006–2009), National Coordinator for the Nile Basin Discourse Forum in Rwanda (NBDF), a civil society platform that had over 50 NGOs involved in the conservation of river Nile. He resigned in May 2009. He was also President of the Rwanda NGOs Forum on Water, Sanitation and Environment-RWASEF and founder Chairman for the Rwandan Environment Conservation Organisation (RECOR). He resigned from all the NGOs when he joined active opposition politics. In June 2010 these two organizations distanced themselves from him after a report alleged that donor funds had been diverted for political purposes. [6] The report, issued by the Ministry of Local Government, named Habineza as one of the people behind “briefcase” NGO’s that fleece donors, and named five NGOs as vehicles used by him to obtain funding for political activities.

Political career

Habineza founded the Democratic Green Party (DGP) in August 2009 as an alternative to the dominant Rwanda Patriotic Front. In April 2010 three leading members of the DGP resigned due to disagreements over Habineza’s activities. They said that the party was being manipulated by foreigners, and denied statements made by Habineza that Rwanda was helping the UK and the US plunder timber from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and that Rwanda had deployed troops in the DRC. In July 2010 the vice-president of the DGP, Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, was found dead near a wetland in Butare with his head cut off. He had been repeatedly stabbed. Habineza was among opposition leaders who called for an independent international investigation into the murder, which may have had a political motivation.

The National Electoral Commission will announce provisional candidates on 27th June and a final list will be published on 7th July. Campaigns will start on 14th July and end on 3rd August. Presidential Elections will take place on 3rd August for Rwandans in diaspora and on 4th August 2017 for Rwandans in the country.

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