Rwanda’s President to Run for Fourth Term In 2024

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has said he will run for a fourth term in next year’s presidential election.

Mr. Kagame told French-Language Magazine Jeune Afrique on Tuesday that he is a candidate in the 2024 polls.

Asked about what the west would think about his decision to run again, Mr. Kagame said what the west thinks is not his problem.

Mr. Kagame had joked in April that he was looking forward to retiring and handing over power after 23 years in office.

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Mr. Kagame has been president of the East African Nation since 2000. A controversial referendum in 2015 removed a two-term constitutional limit for presidents.

He won the last election in 2017 with 98.8 per cent of the vote.

Kagame had previously not made his intentions clear, but presided over controversial constitutional amendments in 2015 that allowed him to run for more terms and stay in power until 2034.

A former rebel chief, Kagame became president in April 2000 but has been regarded as the country’s de facto leader since the end of the 1994 genocide.

He was returned to office — with more than 90 percent of the vote — in elections in 2003, 2010 and 2017.

While Rwanda lays claim to being one of the most stable countries in Africa, rights groups accuse Kagame of ruling in a climate of fear, stifling dissent and free speech.