Kagame will start his campaign today for the Aug. 9 vote by promoting his achievements in building the central African country’s economy, enforcing good governance and broadening social welfare, Wellars Gasamara, spokesman for the Rwandan Patriotic Front, said in an interview today.
The “attacks were sad events, but they have not affected our party and we are not concerned because it is a matter for government not the party to handle,” Gasamara said from the capital, Kigali.
The deputy leader of Rwanda’s opposition Democratic Green Party was found dead last week with his head nearly severed. Newspaper editor Jean-Leonard Rugambage has been killed and a dissident former Rwandan army chief of staff, Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, was shot and hospitalized in Johannesburg. The Rwandan government denies involvement in the incidents.
Kagame, an army general who helped Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni into power, led the rebel forces that in 1994 ended the genocide of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. He won a first 7-year term in September 2003 after Rwanda’s first democratically contested multi-party elections, according to his website.
World Bank Accolade
Kagame has overseen a period of economic growth, with the World Bank’s Doing Business 2010 report ranking Rwanda as the world’s top “business reformer.” The coffee-based economy is projected to grow 5.4 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund said on July 9.
“The message will be around the economy, justice, good governance and social welfare,” Gasamara said. “We will give account of the achievements in these areas which the party promised to deliver in the last campaign, and put forward new pledges for the next seven years.”
Victoire Ingabire, leader of the opposition United Democratic Forces, said on July 16 that she was under house arrest and hadn’t been able to register for the election, making Kagame’s victory “certain.”