A Rwandan courtroom dominated on Wednesday that opposition chief and authorities critic Victoire Ingabire is ineligible to run in July's presidential elections as a consequence of earlier convictions for denial of terrorism and genocide.
“I don’t agree with this assertion. It's clearly politicized. We nonetheless have a rustic the place the courts are nonetheless not unbiased,” she informed AFP after the Kigali Excessive Court docket ruling.
Ingabire, a fierce critic of Rwanda's long-ruling President Paul Kagame, spent eight years in jail earlier than receiving a presidential pardon in 2018.
The polls are extensively anticipated to return Kagame to energy for a fourth seven-year time period after he presided over controversial constitutional modifications that might see him rule till 2034.
The 66-year-old has been on the helm of the landlocked African nation for many years, profitable presidential elections in 2003, 2010 and 2017 – with greater than 90 % of the vote.
Kagame's solely identified challenger within the July polls is Inexperienced Celebration chief Frank Habineza, who gained 0.45 % of the vote in 2017. All different opposition events assist the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Entrance.
An ethnic Hutu, Ingabire, 55, was accused of “divisionism” after he publicly questioned the federal government's narrative of the 1994 genocide towards the Tutsi minority, which killed about 800,000 folks.
Kagame has been praised for bringing stability to the African nation, however his authorities's dismal human rights document has drawn criticism.
