A 35-year-old woman is in the race to become Rwanda’s next president, and is hoping to beat incumbent President Paul Kagame in the August poll.
Diane Shima Rwigara announced that she will be running for the presidency as an independent candidate, aiming to become the country’s first female president.
In her manifesto, Diane says she plans to tackle poverty, injustice and ensure security around the country.
“I will be tackling poverty, I will be tackling injustice, I will be tackling insecurity. In the last 23 years RPF has been in power, they have not been able, not only to eradicate poverty but even to give Rwandans the minimum, most Rwandans are dying of hunger, they have nowhere to live,” she said.
Rwanda’s National Electoral Commission is expected to receive nominations from candidates from June 12 to 23, with a provisional list of qualified candidates to be announced on June 27.
Dianne is the daughter of a tycoon, Assinapol Rwigara, who once bankrolled the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front before he was killed in a road crash in 2015.
Although the police conclusively reported Assinapol’s death to have been caused by the accident, Dianne differed, alleging that her father’s death was an assassination.
An influentian industrialist, Assinapol made his fortune in the real estate industry, and played an important role in financing RPF in the 1990s.
President Kagame will be running for another term in office following changes in the constitution in a referendum conducted in December 2015.
Rwandans voted overwhelmingly for the changes to allow Kagame extend his stay in the presidency after his second mandate ends.
In effect, the changes allow him to stand for another seven-year term, and two more five-year terms after that, meaning that Kagame could be in power until 2034.
Last month, the head of Rwanda’s opposition Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, Frank Habineza, was selected as his party’s candidate. The party is the only registered opposition party to Kagame’s government.
