Rwandan presidential candidate Paul Kagame, the incumbent President of Rwanda, speaks at a presidential campaign rally in Ruhango, Rwanda, on July 14, 2017. Rwanda's presidential campaigns officially kicked off on Friday. The ruling party Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF)'s presidential candidate Paul Kagame, who is seeking a third term, has launched his campaigns in his childhood home town of Ruhango District, Southern Rwanda. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran)
by Lyu Tianran and James Gashumba
KIGALI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The incumbent president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, will seek his third term in the presidential elections on August 4, where he will face challenges from other two candidates.
Kagame, also the chairman of the ruling party Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), holds advantage over the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda's Frank Habineza and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana, as he has a good track record and enjoys high popularity in the country, analysts told Xinhua.
"He is extremely popular and has the experience. He is the author of Rwanda's emergence among nations," said Herman Musahara, Associate Professor and Researcher of College of Business and Economics at University of Rwanda. He predicted another landslide victory of Kagame.
This year's presidential elections will be the third since the end of the ex-genocidal regime in 1994. Kagame gained landslide victories in the last two presidential elections held in 2003 and 2010 by winning 95 percent and 93 percent of the total votes, respectively.
The 1994's Rwanda genocide claimed over 1 million lives, mostly ethnic Tutsis. After ending the genocide, RPF led by Kagame formed a coalition government, which brought parties that did not participate in the genocide together, and started the journey of reconstruction and reconciliation.
He has been head of a government that has become the 7th in efficiency globally and the third in Africa in ease of doing business, said Musahara.
Kagame is cherished more profoundly as having led stopping the Rwandan genocide in 1994 under difficult conditions, and then went on to forge a unique and successful model of national unity and reconciliation, said the expert.
Supporters of Rwandan presidential candidate Paul Kagame, the incumbent President of Rwanda, hold up flags of the ruling party Rwandan Patriotic Front at a presidential campaign rally in Ruhango, Rwanda, on July 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran)
"Since the (July 1994) liberation, Rwanda has started a journey of recovering its unity and identity... which had been put aside, put down, by colonial rulers and subsequent regimes of the first and second regimes," executive secretary of Rwanda's National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) Fidele Ndayisaba told Xinhua in an exclusive interview in June.
Rwanda's reconciliation status is at 92.5 percent, up from 82.3 percent of five years before, according to Rwanda Reconciliation Barometer released by NURC in 2016.
The government has now adopted a policy of single national identity. Citizens are registered simply as Rwandans, with no ethnic or tribal references anymore on their identification papers.
According to Musahara, Kagame's achievements in his last seven-year term include overseeing rapid economic and social development of Rwanda and Rwandans, taking Rwanda to a high positioning in visibility and competitiveness globally as a model of a developmental state, and maintaining peace and security in the country and the region.
"Life for Rwandans has generally continued to improve, and it is obvious to many that the government tries its best to work for them and in their interest," said Frederick Golooba-Mutebi a researcher and writer on politics and public affairs.
He told Xinhua that other candidates can't convince Rwandans that they have a viable alternative agenda that would make people's lives better than they have been made over the last 23 years.
Kagame has a strong and clear track record, said the researcher, adding that most of what he and the government they lead have promised, they have delivered.
Where they have not delivered to expectations, fair-minded Rwandans would agree that it was not because they were taking care of their own interests at the expense of those of the ordinary person.
The government's achievements in the past seven years include unity, poverty reduction, peace, security, fighting corruption, inclusive development, accountability and justice as foundation for sustainable development, infrastructure development and environment conservation, women empowerment, the CEO of Rwanda Governance Board Anastase Shyaka said during RPF's congress, where Kagame was elected as RPF's presidential candidate.
Others include universal health insurance cover for Rwandans and rural development, he said.
Campaigns for the three candidates started on July 14 and will end on August 3, just a day before the elections.
About 6.8 million people will participate in this year's presidential elections, according to the National Electoral Commission of Rwanda.
