President Paul Kagame will face three challengers in Rwanda’s August 9 presidential elections, the electoral commission announced on Wednesday.
Social Democratic Party candidate and Deputy Parliament Speaker Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo, the Liberal Party’s Prosper Higiro and Alvera Mukabaramba of the Progress and Harmony Party — the only woman candidate — will challenge Kagame in the ballot.
Kagame, who has led the Central African country since the end of the 1994 genocide, is the favourite to win the vote.
Rights groups have accused Kagame of stifling any form of dissent in recent months, while the US blamed Rwandan authorities of taking “worrying actions” to restrict freedom of expression ahead of the presidential poll.
“They are the four [candidates] who were cleared because they fulfilled the legal requirements,” said Charles Munyaneza, the electoral commission’s secretary.
Opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who tried to register her party for the election, was briefly detained on charges of denying genocide and collaborating with a terrorist group.
Another opposition candidate who intended to run for the top seat was arrested last month and charged with a terrorism offence, and his trial alongside nine co-accused is under way. — Sapa-AFP