Gen. Kagame — Washington, his regime’s top supporter, says no to third term
The United States opposes any move by Rwanda’s Gen. Paul Kagame to remove term limits in order to run again in the country’s presidential elections two years from now, according to a strongly worded statement by the U.S. State Department.
“President Kagame is currently serving his second seven-year term in office, having run previously in 2003 and 2010, after winning his first election for president in 2000. The next presidential election is scheduled for 2017. The current Rwandan constitution provides a two-term limit,” said Rodney D. Ford, spokesperson for the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs.
“We are committed to support a peaceful, democratic transition in 2017 to a new leader elected by the Rwandan people,” he said.
The United States’ firmly articulated position comes during the current political crisis in Burundi which threatens to destabilize the East and Central Africa region. Since Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza’s April announcement that he will seek a third term in office, he has faced violent protest and survived a coup d’état in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura. However, Nkurunziza claims the right to be elected twice by universal suffrage, and he is so popular with Rwanda’s rural majority that he will almost certainly win at the polls. Burundi’s constitutional court has confirmed that the country’s constitution allows him to run again, but the US disagrees.
“The United States supports the principle of democratic transition in all countries in the region through free, fair, and credible elections, held in accordance with current constitutions, including provisions regarding term limits,” Ford said.
Both Rwanda’s President Kagame and DR Congo’s President Kabila succeeded in claiming the constitutional right to be elected twice by universal suffrage, and Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni arm-twisted his country’s Parliament to remove term limits long ago. Museveni recently announced that he intends to run again next year, as he enters his 30th year in power. Ugandan opposition parties are threatening to boycott the March 2016 presidential election unless Museveni’s hand-picked election commission is replaced by an independent commission.
Bureau of African Affairs spokesman Rodney D. Ford’s statement echoed the substance of President Obama’s 2009 speech in Accra, Ghana, during his first presidential trip to Africa. “The United States believes that democracy is best advanced through the development of strong institutions, not strongmen. For that reason, as Secretary of State Kerry has said, we do not support changing constitutions to benefit the personal or political interests of individuals or parties. Changing constitutions and eliminating term limits to favor incumbents is inconsistent with democratic principles and reduces confidence in democratic institutions.”
The State Department was responding to inquiries by this reporter. The Rwandan Mission to the United Nations has made no comment as yet.
