President Paul Kagame of Rwanda on Monday filed his candidacy for a presidential election slated for August 25, the first since the country’s genocidal war of 1994.
”President Kagame was the first to file his candidacy,” said Chrisologue Karangwa, head of the national election commission.
The presidential poll will be the first since up to a million people were killed in three months of bloodshed in 1994 because they belonged to the Tutsi minority or, in the case of many Hutus, they refused to go along with the genocide.
Kagame’s party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, named him as its candidate on July 5.
Three others have said they planned to stand in the election, but none filed their papers on Monday. They have until Friday to do so.
They are former prime minister Faustin Twagiramungu, who returned to Rwanda in June after eight years in exile in Belgium; former minister Jean Nepomuscene Nayinzira, and Theoneste Niyitegeka, a doctor with no political background.
The commission is to publish an official list of candidates on Saturday, and campaigning is due to kick off August 1.
The election will be decided according to a simple majority after a single round of voting under universal adult suffrage. Under a new constitution, a presidential term lasts seven years and can be renewed once.
Legislative polls are scheduled for September 29. – Sapa-AFP