Rwanda’s leader Paul Kagame who has been in power for 20 years has said that he would stand for president again at the next election in 2024.
In 2015 the constitution was changed, allowing him to stay until 2034.
Mr Kagame, 64, has been in power for over two decades, contesting and winning three presidential elections in 2000, 2010 and 2017.
In the last presidential election five years ago, official figures showed he won 99% of the vote, which many outside the country dismissed as a sham.
“I would consider running for another 20 years. I have no problem with that. Elections are about people choosing,” Mr Kagame said.
The Rwandan leader disclosed this in an interview with France 24 when asked if he would contest again.
Kagame became president in 2000 after being Rwanda’s de facto leader since the end of the country’s genocide in 1994. He is credited with stabilising the country and promoting economic growth after the mass killings, but critics, most especially Amnesty International says he is an authoritarian ruler who does not tolerate opposition and he is accused of human rights abuses.
Amnesty’s Regional Director for East Africa, Muthoni Wanyeki, says “Since the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front took power 23 years ago, Rwandans have faced huge, and often deadly, obstacles to participating in public life and voicing criticism of government policy. The climate in which the upcoming elections take place is the culmination of years of repression.”