Rwandan Opposition Boycotts Parliamentary Elections

Rwandans went to the polls Monday to elect new legislators despite a boycott by opposition parties. The country’s second parliamentary elections since the 1994 genocide will be contested by President Paul Kagame’s ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) RPF and two allied parties - the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party. Speaking in Kigali, Kagame said his party was confident of winning a comfortable majority in the polls. Rwanda’s opposition is largely composed of about a dozen parties operating from exile. One of them, the Belgium-based United Democratic Forces (UDF), dismissed the polls as a charade, accusing Kagame’s RPF of monopolizing state machinery to influence the outcome of elections and generally controlling the country’s democratic processes.[PE]