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Rwanda: US opposed to Kagame’s third term bid

 

Despite apparently broad support in Rwanda for Mr Kagame remaining in office beyond 2017, the Obama administration’s disapproval is likely to carry weight for the country dependent on development aid from the US.

READ: Disappointment for Green Party as MPs support scrap of term limits

State Department officials have also criticised Rwanda’s human rights record under President Kagame, who first took office in 2003.

“Alongside Rwanda’s remarkable development progress, there have been equally consistent efforts to reduce space for independent voices and to diminish the ability of the media, opposition groups and civil society to operate,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Steven Feldstein recently told the US Congress.

The Rwandan Parliament’s move to change the constitution is the first step in a process that also must also involve a national referendum. But the outcome of such a vote would generate little suspense.

More than half the country’s enrolled voters are reported to have signed a petition calling for revision of the article in the constitution limiting a president to two terms.

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