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| Frank Habineza |
KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwanda's Democratic Green Party said on Monday it
will sit out September's parliamentary election after the electoral
commission took three years to register it, finally doing so just days
before the deadline.
Analysts say President Paul Kagame has a well-documented record of
blocking, threatening or infiltrating rival parties to stifle even
nascent political opposition, and that the belated registration of the
Democratic Green Party can hardly be seen as a real opening of the
democratic space.
Most other parties are allied to Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front, which holds four in five parliamentary seats.
Democratic Green Party president Frank Habineza said the lateness of
the registration meant it was "not possible to have all the necessary
requirements" to field candidates in the election.
Launched in 2009, the new party submitted its registration request
in 2010, hoping to contest that year's presidential election, which
Kagame won overwhelmingly.
Habineza said the party would now focus on the 2016 local elections and the next presidential election in 2017.
Kagame earned international praise for rebuilding the country after
the 1994 genocide, but critics accuse the former rebel commander of
being authoritarian and trampling on political freedoms, charges he
rejects.
Leading opposition figure Victoire Ingabire, head of the
unregistered FDU-Inkingi party, was unable to stand against Kagame in
2010 after being accused of genocide-related charges and forming an
armed group. She was convicted in 2012 and is appealing.
(Reporting by Jenny Clover; Writing by Duncan Miriri and Kevin Liffey)
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