KIGALI: Rwanda has overwhelmingly voted to change the constitution to allow President Paul Kagame to potentially rule until 2034, election officials said on Saturday citing partial referendum results.
“We have seen the will of the people. It’s clear that what the people want, they can achieve,” said National Electoral Commission chief Kalisa Mbanda, announcing 98.1 percent had voted “yes” with preliminary results in from some 70 percent of the country.
“They called for the change of the constitution and they have made it,” the pro-government New Times newspaper quoted him as saying.
Kagame, 58, could now be in power potentially for another 17 years.
“What is happening is the people’s choice,” he told reporters after casting his vote on Friday.
The amendment allows Kagame to run for a third seven-year term in 2017, at the end of which the new rules take effect and he will be eligible to run for a further two five-year terms. The United States and European Union have denounced the proposed amendments as undermining democracy in the central African country.
On Friday, the EU delegation in Kigali said there had been a lack of “sufficient time and space for debate” on the issue, with the date for the referendum only announced on December 8 and the draft of the changes “only published publically less than one day ahead of the vote.”
“The short time between the announcement and the holding of the referendum left little or no opportunity for all parties to present their arguments,” the EU said.
Rwanda vote grants extra terms for Kagame
Rwanda vote grants extra terms for Kagame
Ukraine, Russia exchange POWs for first time in months
- The two sides have in the past conducted several rounds of prisoner swaps
- “Today’s exchange came after a long pause, and it is critical that we were able to make it happen,” Zelensky said
KYIV: Ukraine and Russia have conducted their first prisoner exchange in months, each releasing at least 157 people, both countries said Thursday, amid US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending the war.
The two sides have in the past conducted several rounds of prisoner swaps, one of the rare areas of direct cooperation between Ukraine and Russia amid the four-year war, but last month Kyiv accused Moscow of halting the exchanges.
On Thursday, amid three-way talks in Abu Dhabi, the countries swapped 157 captured soldiers and civilians each in an exchange mediated by Washington — the first since October.
“Today’s exchange came after a long pause, and it is critical that we were able to make it happen. I thank everyone who works to make these exchanges possible,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
Images he posted showed the released prisoners, their heads freshly shaven, wrapped in Ukrainian flags and smiling amid falling snow.
Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said among the 157 Ukrainians released “are seven civilians and those whom the Russians unlawfully convicted.”
Zelensky’s aide Kyrylo Budanov said that in the group of the freed prisoners were 19 Ukrainians “who were illegally sentenced, 15 of them to life imprisonment.”
Russia, who said the United States and United Arab Emirates acted as mediators for the exchange, announced earlier it had handed over 157 Ukrainian soldiers and that 157 Russian servicemen were returned.
“In addition, three Russian citizens, residents of the Kursk region... will be returned home,” the Russian defense ministry said in a statement.
Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region in 2024.
