INDEPTH: RWANDA
Election 2003
CBC News Online | August 26, 2003
| ELECTION FACTS: |
Election: Office of the presidency of the Republic of Rwanda
Date: August 25, 2003. The date was moved up from November 26, 2003
Population: 7,398,074 (July 2002 estimate)
Number of registered voters: 3,863,965 (Based on the 2003 constitutional referendum)
Pre-election government structure
Chief of State: President Major General Paul Kagame
Head of Government: Prime Minister Bernard Makuza
National Assembly: Unicameral Transitional National Assembly with 74 seats. The new constitution replaces the current National Assembly with a bicameral parliament that will have an 80-seat Chamber of Deputies and a 26-seat Senate.
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Rwanda's election on August 25, 2003, marked the country's first popular vote for president since the genocide of 1994. Maj.-Gen. Paul Kagame's victory was announced a day earlier than expected because it was clear he'd won a majority before the vote-counting was completed.
Kagame had been Rwanda's interim leader since April 17, 2000, after being elected by the National Assembly and transitional government ministers.
Earlier in 2003, Rwandan voters also supported a new constitution designed to prevent genocide through a reorganization of legislative bodies and added guidelines for political administration.
The constitution demands that no party hold more than 50 per cent of seats in cabinet, and that the president, prime minister and president of the lower house must, among them, represent more than one party. The document also bans the incitement of ethnic hatred.
The presidential term is seven years and it is renewable only once.
Candidates
President Paul Kagame
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Major General Paul Kagame, Rwandan Patriotic Front
Kagame, a Tutsi who rejects ideas of ethnic division, identifies himself exclusively as a Rwandan. He was born in 1957. When he was four, his family fled from Rwanda to Uganda to escape growing anti-Tutsi violence. He joined Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army (NRA) in 1979 and rose through the ranks to become head of NRA military intelligence in 1986. With Fred Rwigyema, Kagame helped to establish the Rwandan Patriotic Front. The RPF was instrumental in overthrowing the Hutu extremist government in 1994.
When the RPF took power in July 1994, Kagame accepted Rwanda's vice-presidency and defence portfolio. After Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu member of the RPF, stepped down from the presidential office in 2000, Kagame took over the position.
Kagame is widely thought to be the most powerful man in Rwanda. He is married with four children and, according to his political biography, enjoys playing tennis and reading in his spare time.
Faustin Twagiramungu, Independent
Born in 1945, Twagiramungu attended Université du Quebec where he obtained degrees in international relations and economic development. He became the leader of the Republican Democratic Movement (MDR) in 1992 in opposition to the Hutu extremist regime led by former president Juvenal Habyarimana. As a moderate Hutu, Twagiramungu narrowly escaped death in the genocide of 1994.
After becoming prime minister of the RPF-led transitional government in July 1992, Twagiramungu stepped down one year later, citing differences with Kagame. He spent the next eight years in Belgium, returning to Rwanda in June 2003 to announce his candidacy for presidential office. He chose to run independently after the current government banned his party, accusing him of spreading politics of ethnicity.
Twagiramungu campaigned on a platform of national unity, fairer taxes and a reduction in unemployment. He also promoted restoring diplomatic relations with neighbouring countries Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Jean Nepomuscene Nayinzira, Independent
Nayinzira is a 60-year-old former minister in Habyarimana's Republican National Movement for Democracy and Development party. When multipartyism was introduced in 1991, he founded the Christian Democrat Party. Nayinzira is running independently in this election.
He was a minister in the RPF-led transitional government after the genocide and became a member of parliament. He resigned after charges of "unworthy behaviour."
Nayinzira rarely appears publicly, but is openly critical of the RPF. His platform included promotion of unity, security and belief in God.
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Population: 7,810,056
Capital: Kigali
Government type: Republic
President: Paul Kagame
Ethnicity: 85% Hutu, 14% Tutsi
Major languages: Kinyarwanda, English and French are official languages. Swahili is also used.
Major religions: Catholic (56.5%), Protestant (26%), Adventist (11.1%), Muslim (4.6%)
Location: Land-locked nation in central Africa, bordering Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Area: 26,338 km sq.
Life expectancy: 39.33 years
Median age: 18.1 years
Natural resources: Gold, tin ore, tungsten ore, methane
Canadian imports from: Coffee ($700,000)
Canadian exports to: Electrical machinery ($800,000 and worn clothing $100,000)
Sources: CIA World Factbook and Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
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