In a letter submitted to the national electoral commission on 13 august 2024, Franck Habineza, the chairman of the Green Party notified the urgent replacement of a deputy candidate, Similarly, the secretary general of RPF officiated the replacement of the deputy number 37 by the candidate number 39 on the whole list of RPF elected deputies. We stressed it with previous publications that Rwandan elections were pure masquerade to lure the international community and the regime practices are progressively confirming the regrettable observation. Any political analyst may wonder about the importance of legislative elections in Rwanda if any time an elected deputy can be victim of an urgent replacement without any justification or be coerced to resign for petty offences from which they are later acquitted. What does it matter if such a vote can easily be compromised? The present analysis scrutinizes ins and outs of such a paradox which overtly betrays the politics of lies that the RPF has always played to fool the less informed public.
Analysis
These unexpected replacements are clues that any deputy was not elected in Rwanda but just appointed on subjective parameters informally established by the regime.
1)Four candidates unjustly removed
On the provisional list of RPF, a certain Dr. Turamwishimiye Marie Rose, lecturer at the university of Rwanda, school of law who was occupying the 26 place was removed within the final list and Musonera Germain who was the 38th automatically got the 37th place. Unfortunately, with the letter of the chairperson of the National Election Commission, Musonera Germain lost the post and was replaced by Mazimpaka Jean Claude who understandably was not the 38th but the 39th! Mrs Ayinkamiye Marie Louise who was the 38th was also skipped while she deserved the post in the logical and legal reasoning. In a nutshell, the RPF dismissed three deputies i.e. Dr. Turamwishimiye Marie Rose, Musonera Germain and Ayinkamiye Marie Louise who normally and legally deserved to get the post given that she was the next on the list after Musonera Germain.
2)Convergent narratives bordering on corruption and favoritism
The president of the green party informed partisans of his political platform that the abrupt change of the final list of elected candidate was due to calls from the National Election Commission and the Rwanda Investigation Bureau which urged him to remove Mrs. Maombi Carine and replace her by Mrs. Masozera Icyizanye. However, in the letter he submitted to the National Election Commission, he was indicating that it was their discretionary decision to proceed to such an unexpected resolution worse still against the party’s vice-president. In a letter of 14 august 2024 addressed to the secretary general of the parliament, the president of the National Election Commission reports that RPF and the Green Party operated some changes on the lists of deputies meant to swear in. From these contradictory versions, one may inquire who instructed whom about these corrupted facts and the role played by the Rwanda Investigation Bureau against people whose criminal records are clean. Did they commit crimes during the month that separates the publication of provisional results and the swearing-in ceremony? What is certain, none of them will be prosecuted because what was targeted was just a pretext to dismiss them and insert candidates who have strong recommendations within the regime; Isn’t this an indication of favoritism that Kagame hypocritically condemns while being aware that all these candidates were appointed in shady circumstances where no objective criteria are followed, only arrangements based on the amount of corruption paid for some male candidates without close relatives in the regime; family ties to the regime’s officials; the origin of the candidate or his/her family when the RPF took power(Uganda); sex-based corruption for women, so many baseness that are worthy of a banana republic.
3)A late cheating
Those deputies who were dismissed are legally and politically clean; it is matter of people who have strong recommendations in the regime but who unduly enlisted and dared to exercise a certain pressure on the RPF authorities to forcibly appoint them in the detriment of candidates who had no strong supports in the regime and astonishingly the succeeded even if this tarnishes the image of the country as far as are concerned legislative elections which turned out to be pure masquerade and candidates barely appointed.
Conclusion
General elections were held in Rwanda on 15 July 2024 to elect the president and members of the Chamber of Deputies. In an election that was criticized as unfair for its barring of serious opposition candidates, incumbent President Paul Kagame, in office since 2000, was elected to a fourth term (allegedly with over 99% of the vote and a 98.2% turnout) and was inaugurated on 11 August while the 80 deputies have taken the oath on 14 august 2024. Freedom House considered the elections in Rwanda neither free nor fair, citing reports of ballot stuffing, political intimidation, blocking of opposition challengers, and other undemocratic practices and these brutal replacements are part of them and constitute an undoubted proof that what is sought is not the general interest of the nation but the advantages that the candidate gains from the position
Written by NTAMUHANGA Cessien
