Rwanda’s Supreme Court has ruled in favour of changing the constitution and dismissed the case brought by the opposition Green Party protesting at moves to allow President Paul Kagame to run for a third seven-year term.<\/p>\n
“The petition… has no basis and is hereby dismissed,” the AFP news agency quotes Chief Justice Sam Rugege as saying.<\/p>\n
MPs agreed to change the constitution in July and to hold a national referendum on the issue.<\/p>\n
“Denying the free will of the people to choose how they are governed is not democratic, rather it is the opposite,” the judge said.<\/p>\n
This comes amidst protest from only one opposition party in Rwanda which argues that Kagame must respect the tenets of the constitution rather than look to subvert it through various means. Rwanda\u2019s parliament, controlled by Kagame\u2019s supporters, backed a motion in July to let Kagame run again, a move expected to lead to a referendum on the constitution.<\/p>\n
That decision followed the submission to parliament of a petition supporting a change signed by 3.8 million people in the country whose population is about 12 million.<\/p>\n
Kagame has not directly said he wants to run again but has said he was open to persuasion about changing the constitution.<\/p>\n
Kagame,who was once a rebel leader has won international praise and local popularity for rebuilding the small nation after it was shattered by genocide in 1994, when 800,000 mostly Tutsis and also Hutus were massacred.<\/p>\n
Washington and other donors have however voiced concerns about moves to change the constitution, pointing to the political crisis that rumbles on in its neighbouring country, Burundi after President Pierre Nkurunziza secured a third term in a disputed election.
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\nBy: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rwanda’s Supreme Court has ruled in favour of changing the constitution and dismissed the case brought by the opposition Green Party protesting at moves to allow President Paul Kagame to run for a third seven-year term. “The petition… has no basis and is hereby dismissed,” the AFP news agency quotes Chief Justice Sam Rugege as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":158223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[14],"yoast_head":"\n