Kagame to decide on third term after referendum

RWANDA’S President Paul Kagame has said he will decide whether to seek a third term in office after a referendum, possibly this month, on a constitutional change that would allow him to run again.

The United States, a major donor that has long praised President Kagame for rebuilding the nation after the 1994 genocide, has said he should set an example to the region by stepping down at the end of his second term in 2017, Reuters said.

The debate about term limits has flared across Africa. In next door, Burundi, President Pierre Nkurunziza’s election for a third term that faced opposition has plunged the nation into crisis. Other African leaders are also approaching term limits.

Kagame, who was first elected president in 2003 but was seen as Rwanda’s main power broker long before that, has not announced his intentions but has said those who want him to stay must convince him.

“I am still listening,” he told senior officials in the Rwanda Patriotic Front on Sunday. “Whatever you want from me will be based on the decision of the referendum and thus my answer will come after the referendum.”
He did not give a date for the ballot in his comments that were aired by the state broadcaster.