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Africa (Rwanda) – June 13, 2026

HRF condemns Rwanda’s new elections law which hands dictator Paul Kagame sweeping control over the composition of electoral colleges for local government elections. It is the latest legal manipulation to tighten Kagame’s control over local government.
The new law gazetted on May 25 transfers the governance of electoral colleges for district councillors and the capital Kigali local government leaders from the statutory electoral legislation to the sole authority of the President. With this power, Kagame alone has the authority to shape these bodies by decree, without parliamentary vote.

Oda Gasinzigwa, a ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party member who was appointed by Kagame’s cabinet in 2023 as Chair of Rwanda’s National Election Commission (NEC), declared on June 8 that the change is designed to allow the composition of electoral colleges to be modified by Presidential Order whenever “prevailing conditions and circumstances require it.”

The measure was initially introduced in Rwanda’s RPF-controlled parliament in March by Minister of Local Government Minister Dominique Habimana. This follows a well-worn pattern of power consolidation through legal manipulation. In 2015, the regime orchestrated a constitutional change allowing Kagame to rule until 2034.

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