A hundred people gathered Friday afternoon from 13:30 to 16:00 at the Schuman roundabout in front of the European institutions in Brussels, to condemn the decision of the Rwandan authorities to amend the Constitution to allow the Rwandan Patriotic Front to stay on power.
IGIHE has learnt from Le Soir that a delegation was received and filed a memorandum taking up their claims.
Others like Democratic Green Party of Rwanda has also opposed the lifting of term limits from the Rwandan Constitution including other 10 people who have petitioned Rwandan Parliament against constitution change.
Meanwhile President Kagame himself while speaking at a retreat that drew 600 top cadres of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi) party in Kigali said “You just can’t say ‘I don’t want change’ and then you can’t explain it. If you don’t want change while there is a debate about change, those who don’t want change should convince others why they don’t want it. They have to convince us, they have to convince Africa, and they have to convince the world,” he told the RPF cadres.
In previous debates about the issue of third term, President Kagame stated that he belonged to the side that wanted the Constitution unchanged but encouraged a healthy debate over the issue.
After being swarmed by petitions from Rwandans across the country and outside Rwanda proposing the amendment of article 101 of the Constitution that mandates two Presidential terms, Parliament has given a green light to the constitutional change to allow President Kagame to run for a third term.
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