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In a resounding endorsement, provisional results showed that Rwandans yesterday voted to approve the country’s revised Constitution.

Preliminary results released last night by the National Electoral Commission, showed that 98.1 per cent voted “Yego” (Yes) in Friday’s referendum. “Provisional results indicate that the turnout is 98.28%. Yes: 98.13% and No: 1.71%,” said the Electoral Commission.

The results are from 21 districts out of 30 that make up the country, representing 70 per cent. All that was needed was 50% + 1 to take the day.

In Tanzania, UAE, Canada and Djibouti, 100% of Rwandans who voted endorsed removal of term limits for president of #Rwanda.

The vote by Rwandans in the Diaspora took place a day earlier, and by yesterday results from only 10 countries were known. In Canada 169 Rwandans caste their votes, among them 87 are male and 82 female. All voted YES.

“Final results will be released not later than 21st December,” said the Electoral Commission, a result which will allow Paul Kagame to run again in 2017 after his second term ends.

President Kagame earlier in the day said he will announce his decision on whether he will stand for President in 2017 after full results of a referendum are out.

Kagame also said he would not seek to in stay in power for life, a fear raised by some foreign observers and activists.

“I don’t want: ask Rwandans who are asking me why they want me,” Kagame told journalists shortly after casting his ballot at Ape-Rugunga polling station in Nyarujenje district.

Kagame cast his vote at Ape-Rugunga polling station at 11:30am, accompanied by his wife Jeannette and daughter, Ange Kagame.

At least 6.4 million Rwandans voted on the removal of a two-term limit for President from the country’s constitution.
About 400,000 Rwandans living in the diaspora voted a day earlier on the removal of term limits, at their respective missions abroad.

Kagame said any decision to run for another term if the referendum paves the way would depend on his record of service but said it was up to Rwandans to decide who leads them.

Kagame, 57, has been at the helm of Rwandan politics since 1994, after he commanded the force that ended the genocide by Hutu extremists that left about 800,000 people dead.

Kagame won elections in 2003 and 2010, each time scoring more than 90% of the vote. Article 101 of Rwanda’s constitution provides for a maximum of two seven-year terms for president.

However, apart from changing the two-term limit for President, the Rwandan government also plans to amend the constitution to change the tenure for all elected leaders from seven to five.

The streets of Kigali were desolate and commercial centres were closed for the most part of Friday, which was designated a public holiday.

ARUSHA, Tanzania This town, near the edge of the Great Rift Valley, has long been a jumping off point for safaris. But intermingled with the zoom-lens-wielding tourists and camouflage-green safari trucks has been another common sight: buttoned-up legal staff members drawn from all over the world.

They have long converged here in a conference-center-turned-fortress in the center of town, guarded by United Nations police officers.

But now, after 21 years, 93 cases and $2 billion, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is closing down.

The last defendants to appear before the tribunal sat beside their robed lawyers in a cramped courtroom on Monday, waiting nervously for a decision in their appeals.

This special court, set up by the United Nations in 1994 in response to agenocide of nearly one million people in Rwanda that year, was intended to bring to justice the orchestrators of the mass killings. All of those on the tribunal’s suspect list had fled Rwanda, and most were hunted down and arrested elsewhere. The tribunal’s prosecutor deployed a team to Rwanda in the 1990s to speak to victims and witnesses.

The tribunal’s early years were tainted by missteps. Critics said it was too slow, too expensive and too biased.

In the past few months, as the last cases have wrapped up, courtrooms and floors of office space have gradually been rented back to the conference center’s landlord.
“A liquidation team is in place to sell all that is remaining behind, be it furniture, vehicles and computers,” said Danford Mpumilwa, a tribunal spokesman. “Naturally some of the items have been donated to schools and other local institutions, which desperately need them.”

The United Nations is building a much smaller facility that will house the tribunal’s archive — a point of contention with the Rwandan government, which is demanding that the archive be brought to Rwanda.

For one last session Monday, the court convened in the Kilimanjaro Wing of the tribunal.

Seats set aside for family were the first to fill up. Wives, nephews and grandchildren of the accused flashed thumbs-up and jumped up from their chairs to wave through the finger-smudged glass separating the public gallery from the courtroom.

Many of the spectators were carefully watching Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, a prominent suspect, who served as the Rwandan government’s minister for family and women’s development during the 1994 genocide, when soldiers, militia and everyday farmers — whipped into a frenzy by their leaders — killed their neighbors.

Ms. Nyiramasuhuko’s role drew particular interest because she is the only woman the tribunal has tried. In 2011, she was found guilty on seven counts, including genocide and incitement to rape. Ms. Nyiramasuhuko was tried with her son Arsène Shalom Ntahobali and four other members of the local administration in the town of Butare in southern Rwanda, who were all convicted on multiple counts. The “Butare Six,” as they became known, all appealed their convictions.

Judges on Monday upheld the six verdicts. But family members watching from the courtroom gallery were jubilant as Judge Fausto Pocar, from Italy, announced reduced sentences for the defendants.
For Ms. Nyiramasuhuko, though, it apparently will not make much difference. Her sentence was changed to 47 years from life; she is 69.

Monday was the end of an era. The court officially closes its doors at the end of the year, and this was the last case to be heard in its current incarnation. After that, any unfinished business, such as supporting prosecutions in other countries or trying any of the remaining suspects at large, will fall to a slimmed-down institution known as the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, headquartered in The Hague.

The Mechanism, as United Nations officials call it, will continue to run an office in Arusha, but it will be about a tenth of the size of the tribunal at its height. The Mechanism has been preparing for this transition for several years. It will also track residual issues from the United Nations court for the former Yugoslavia when it closes, most likely in late 2017.

Eight Rwandan fugitives are still at large, with $5 million bounties being offered for their capture by the United States through the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program. One high-profile suspect was captured last week in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Beyond the eight most-wanted fugitives, the Rwandan government has issued indictments for more than 400 people accused of involvement in the genocide.
“Let us remember that these are full-size human beings, not pins or grains of salt, which disappear or melt,” said Johnston Busingye, Rwanda’s justice minister, at an emotional ceremony this month. “Some are hidden in plain sight, preaching the word of God to the faithful, treating patients in hospitals or engaged in other activities in various countries.”

He called the failure of countries to apprehend suspects — despite being members of the United Nations, which backed the tribunal — “another U.N. paradox.”

The Government’s efforts to promote a cashless economy and electronic digital payment systems have received further boost with the launch of a new campaign, “Fuel up with visa card,” to promote the use of digital cards in fuel purcahse at pump stations across the country.

The campaign, launched at Societé Petrolière (SP) in Rugunga, Nyarugenge District, yesterday, allows motorists with visa credit, debit and other prepaid cards to access fuel from Mt Meru, Engen, Source Oil, SP and Hash pump refill stations.

The initiative, according to Francois Kanimba, the minister for trade and industry, would help promote efficiency and a cashless economy.
It could also play a critical role in reducing the risk and cost of transaction, thus making the industry more profitable, the minister added.

“As part of the campaign, we will reward the first 1,800 motorists who embrace the initiative and will continue to work with all the stakeholders to ensure that the vision of driving digital payment systems is a reality,” Kanimba told The New Times.

The number of debit cards has increased by 22 per cent in recent past from 532,157 in June last year to 654,349 in June this year.

Equally, credit cards, according to central bank, increased by about 135 per cent, from 1,562 to around 3,675, during the same period.
Maurice Toroitich, the KCB Bank Rwanda managing director and chairperson of Rwanda Bankers Association, said increasing the number of card holders will help promote a proper functioning of money markets across the country.

“Embracing electronic payment systems does not only enhance efficiency but also creates more business opportunities through increased trade volumes and proper data collection and management systems,” said Toroitch.

However, he expressed concern over lack of a strong awareness campaign to promote digitisation of banking systems among consumers.

Lucy Mbabazi, the Visa Rwanda country manager, said such campaigns are a win-win undertaking for both the consumers and service providers requiring only incentive to keep the momentum.
Mbabazi said the initiative will see customers rewarded with up to five litres of free fuel for every Rwf20,000 worth of fuel consumed using visa card.

“We want to make paying for fuel and other commodities at fuel stations as convenient as possible,” she said.

Fuel dealers welcome the initiative

Claudien Habimana, the managing director of SP, said using visa cards and other credit cards will help reduce the risk of cash management on retail sites as well as make the industry more competitive.

“The ultimate profit from such a campaign is better fuel management systems that will reduce on the cost of transactions, thus growing the industry,” Habimana said.
The government is looking for partnerships with the private sector to increase revenue from oil and petroleum products.

The plan is to increase the capacity of the country’s fuel reserves while strengthening its involvement in petroleum and other related products re-export business, serving neighbouring countries, including Burundi and DR Congo.