Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame hopes to extend his 23-year rule, by seeking seek re-election in 2024.
Kagame, who became president in 2000, is eligible to continue in office for another decade after presiding over controversial constitutional amendments in 2015 that allowed him to run for more terms and stay in power until 2034.
He was asked in an interview with the pan-African Jeune Afrique magazine published on Tuesday about his intentions for next year’s election.
“Yes, I am indeed a candidate,” Kagame, who has ruled over the country with an iron fist for decades, told Jeune Afrique, a French-language news magazine, in an interview published online on Tuesday, September 19.
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“I am pleased with the confidence that Rwandans have placed in me. I will always serve them, as long as I can,” the 65-year-old was quoted as saying.
The Rwandan government in March synchronized the dates for its parliamentary and presidential elections, which are due to be held in August next year.
Asked in 2022 if he would seek re-election, Kagame said he would “consider running for another 20 years”.
“Elections are about people choosing,” he told the France 24 news channel in an interview.
According to the electoral commission, Kagame won the last election in August 2017 for a seven-year term with 98.63 per cent of the vote.
Kagame has won international acclaim for presiding over peace and economic growth since the end of the 1994 genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
But he has faced mounting criticism for what human rights groups say is the suppression of political opposition and the muzzling of independent media.
Kagame has rejected these accusations.
