CND - NDC
Inteko y'Abaharanira Demokarasi
Congrès National Pour la Démocratie - National Democratic Congress
Email:
url: http://www.nationaldemocraticcongress.org
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Press Release PP/No. 01/Jan/16
Unequivocal and Strong No to General Paul Kagame's Third Term.
As expected, Gen Paul Kagame has publicly stated his intentions to run for a third term in 2017 presidential elections. After several months of arm twisting, intimidations, threats, and evasive answers, he has finally shown what his real intentions had been, all along: running for a third term and, potentially, for life.
To achieve this goal, he and his cronies devised a sham popular petition that led to a so-called “referendum”. The “referendum” paved the way for constitutional amendments that would allow him to run for office for a third term.
As forcefully stated over several months in our previous press releases, the National Democratic Congress (CND/NDC) strongly and categorically denounces this constitutional coup and opposes any maneuvers by the Rwandan seating president to run for a third term. The NDC clearly embraces the political change as the only and sole way to entrenching democratic principles in Rwanda's political governance. Not only is it wrong to amend the Constitution to allow an oligarch criminal to continue to oppress his people, but it is also appalling when it is done under duress, treachery, coercion, and/or threats.
In months long before the so called “vote”, Kagame operatives canvassed the entire country offering bribes and uttering threats to whoever would try to question the planned constitutional changes. The information at our disposal indicates that Paul Kagame and his cronies had even decided in one of his recent security meetings that anyone who dared to oppose their referendum strategy would have to forcefully be dealt with by the regime security forces, operating as death squads.
Our Organization once again welcomes the positions publicly stated by the US and the EU officials asking Paul Kagame not to seek a third term. However, the Rwandan dictator has chosen to respond by uttering arrogant statements and defiantly demeaning constructive advises from the friends of Rwanda. By pursuing the third term strategy, Paul Kagame would dash any hope of seeing Rwanda joining other countries in which democratic changes are entrenched in the political landscape.
The NDC calls upon all the Rwandans of goodwill to stand up shoulder-to-shoulder and oppose by an uncompromising determination the recent constitutional hijack by Kagame and his cronies. As we have always stated, our Organization is determined to accompany the Rwandan people in their quest for having their voice heard. The Rwanda we want is a Rwanda in which all the citizens, not a few, live without fear and are not denied their basic rights; a Rwanda in which the democratic principles of the political system are enshrined in the mode of governance. In the end, the Rwandan people will prevail and the democratic rule will be the law of the land.
January 2, 2016
Dr. Augustin Dukuze
Porte-Parole
web: www.nationaldemocraticcongress.org
facebook: www.facebook.com/ndc-Rwanda
