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RWANDAN President Paul Kagame yesterday announced his bid for a third term of office in 2017.
The announcement in his end-of-year message follows last month’s constitutional referendum, in which 98 per cent of Rwandans voted to approve a revised constitution to allow Mr Kagame to extend his tenure in office.
Mr Kagame was first elected president in 2000 but had been the power behind the throne of Pasteur Bizimungu since the end of the 1994 genocide.
The opposition criticised the referendum — which potentially allows him to remain in office until 2035 — as undemocratic.
Eight months of violent conflict in neighbouring Burundi was prompted by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s re-election for an arguably unconstitutional third term.
Following an unsuccessful attempt to unseat him Mr Nkurunziza shut down independent media and ordered a violent clampdown that has seen 150,000 flee the country.
He has accused President Kagame of responsibility for the unrest.
