RPF candidate casts his poll, confident of win
The RPF-Inkotanyi candidate, Paul Kagame, was among thousands of Rwandans who turned up in various parts of the country in big numbers to cast their vote in today’s historic polls.
The polls are Rwanda’s second post-genocide elections in which Kagame is seeking re-election for a second seven year term. He faces three other challengers, who include a woman and the deputy speaker of parliament.
Accompanied by his family, the RPF flag-bearer arrived at Rugunga polling centre, Nyarugenge sector of Kigali City at about 11.40 am and was immediately ushered into a designated voting booth.
Thereafter, he addressed the media, who comprised of local, regional and the international press. Kagame said he would respect the results of the polls but hastened to add that “everyone else” should respect the people’s verdict.
Asked what he would do if he lost the election, Kagame said he would go back and look after his cows, read more and write books.
“The best answer will come from the people of Rwanda. It has been a very democratic process and if there is a clear definition of democracy, then this is it,” he said.
On whether the process was peaceful, Kagame said, “I see no problem but there are some people who prefer to see it in another way…critics and sections of the media have been reading from a different page, saying there’s fear, violence….”
Kagame said he found the campaign process exciting and that results of the three-weeks would show. “What’s important for me to say today is that the day was very important for the future of Rwandans,” he said
“Some people have set standards for our elections, talking about tribal divisions and violence. We don’t want to be treated like lesser human beings and we will prove to these critics that Rwanda is not what they have been portraying out there lately,” Kagame said of critics who have downplayed the democratic process in Rwanda.
He told reporters his focus on re-election, would be to consolidate the country’s social-economic transformation and continue on the path of growth supported by what has already been achieved.
He specifically mentioned health care insurance scheme, universal Primary education and numerous unique home grown policies that have already made a difference in the lives of all communities. He promised to increase investments in ICTs so as to enable more Rwandans to be informed and to communicate.
“We are already on a good footing…these things are already happening,” Kagame said.
Also part of his action plan, he said, would be to increase trade in the region and beyond.
Counting of the ballot papers will start this afternoon at 3pm
RPF outlines achievements, unveils campaign plan
The top leadership of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has described
as ‘fruitful and successful’ its seven year mandate that commenced in
2003 following a landslide victory for its party chairman and
incumbent President, Paul Kagame.
Speaking to the media on Friday, the Party’s Vice Chairman, Christophe
Bazivamo said that Rwanda had registered remarkable progress over the
past seven years largely due to the unique policies that RPF had
ushered in and a committed leadership keen on transforming this
country.
“We are a proud nation today because of what RPF has delivered to this
country,” said Bazivamo. “We have achieved significant results in
almost all spheres—social, economic, and political.”
The RPF Vice Chairman was speaking at the press conference convened at
the party headquarters to unveil the campaign plan for the forth
coming presidential poll.
He said some of the home grown unique policies introduced by the RPF
such as imihigo, ubudehe, mutuelle de santé, gacaca and umuganda had
significantly transformed the lives ordinary Rwandans and restored a
“hope for the future” amongst every Rwandan.
He listed success stories in health, education, infrastructure,
agriculture, energy that RPF had promised Rwandans in its 2003
manifesto which had been delivered during the past seven years.
The vice Chairman flanked by the Party Secretary General, Mr. Francois
Ngarambe also outlined RPF’s campaign program, which officially kicks
off on Tuesday. He said party candidate, Paul Kagame’s campaign tour
will run in all the districts of Rwanda.
The Secretary General said that the party has mobilized enough
resources to run the campaign and that much of this contribution is
coming from the party members.
Ngarambe also introduced Mr. Fidele Ndayisaba as the Chief Campaign
Manager and Senator Wellars Gasamagara as the sSpokesperson for the
Party during elections.
The Party also launched three campaign websites, www.fprinkotanyi.org,
www.paulkagame.com and www.mykagame.org, The campaigns kick off on
July 20th at Kigali’s Amahoro Stadium and is expected to run up to
August 7th, a day before the elections.
Diaspora to vote on August 8
Rwandans in the Diaspora will cast their votes a day earlier in the August Presidential polls, the National Electoral Commission (NEC), has revealed.
According to NEC Executive Secretary, Charles Munyaneza, the commission has set August 8 as the voting day for the Diaspora, to enable Rwandans overseas to have ample time to travel to their respective polling centres, which will mainly be diplomatic missions. Presidential elections are slated for August 9. “August 8 will fall on Sunday, which is favourable for people in Diaspora. The voting day here will be a public holiday in Rwanda which will not be the case in other countries,” said Munyaneza. NEC expects the number of voters in Diaspora to double once registration is over. “We have so far registered close to 20,000 voters from the Diaspora and we hope the number will increase since we are still registering,” added Munyaneza.
Close to 16,000 Rwandans abroad participated in the parliamentary elections that took place in 2008. The commission also has plans to open up more than one polling station in large countries and to also establish new ones in countries where Rwanda does not have diplomatic representations. Rwanda currently has a total of 20 diplomatic missions.
Source: New Times
Political parties, gov’t meet over education
Heads of all political parties operating in the country, yesterday met with the State Minister in charge of Primary and Secondary Education, Dr. Mathias Harebamungu, to discuss the way forward for the Education-for-all government policy. Harebamungu told the politicians that the government aims to have all children in the country access Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 2015.
"Our focus is to improve on the quality of education in the country because we want, by 2015, to have every child access education", Harebamungu said at the meeting that took place at the offices of the Forum for Political Organisations here in Kigali. “Education quality as measured by standard indicators such as the ratios of pupil-to-teacher, pupils-to-classroom and the number of pupils per textbook which have improved since the implementation of UPE started.” “In the Education-for-all policy, we are going to engage the youth and the elders to attain education as a means of eradicating illiteracy in our country”.
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