Rwandan President Paul Kagame has confirmed that he will seek re-election for a third term in 2017.
The announcement was expected after a referendum approved constitutional changes to allow him to run for three further terms and could potentially see him to stay in power until 2034.
Paul Kagame said Rwandans had made clear they wanted him to lead the country after 2017, and he could only accept.
He has dominated Rwandan politics since his rebel army ended the 1994 genocide.
Last month’s referendum result means Paul Kagame can run for a third seven-year term in 2017 and then two further five-year terms.
In his New Year’s address at midnight, Paul Kagame, 58, said Rwanda did not need a president for life, and that someone else would take over sooner rather than later.
“You requested me to lead the country again after 2017. Given the importance and consideration you attach to this, I can only accept.
“But I don’t think that what we need is an eternal leader,” he said.
Part of the president’s New Year’s message was directed towards his critics abroad.
Paul Kagame was clearly telling them that democracy was at work in Rwanda and that he was only responding to the people’s wishes.
The US and the EU have said Paul Kagame should step down in 2017 to allow a new generation of leaders to emerge.
They also denounced the results of the referendum, saying voters were not given enough time to make informed decisions.
Paul Kagame has received widespread praise for bringing economic development to Rwanda, but critics have also accused him of a heavy-handed rule.
Rights groups accuse the government of stifling the media and political opposition.
Paul Kagame became acting president in 2000 and was then elected in 2003 and 2010. However, he has effectively held power since 1994, when his rebel force entered the capital, Kigali, to end the country’s genocide.
The majority of Rwandans have voted to allow President Paul Kagame to extend his term in office, initial referendum results show.
Some 98% of voters support changing the constitution to allow Paul Kagame to run again in 2017 after his second term ends, the National Electoral Commission said.
Paul Kagame, 58, could remain in power until 2034 if the changes are passed.
The vote took place despite criticism of such an amendment by the US and other Western donors.
Rwanda’s electoral commission said 21 out of 30 districts had published results so far, covering about 70% of voters.
Full results are due to be released later on December 19.
Paul Kagame has not said if he will run again, but he is widely expected to.
Asked at the polling station if he would stay on, the president said: “What is happening is the people’s choice. Ask people why they want me.”
However, the US has said Paul Kagame should step down in 2017 to allow a new generation of leaders to emerge.
Rights groups accuse the government of stifling the media and political opposition.
The small opposition Democratic Green Party claimed it had been prevented from campaigning against the change.
Paul Kagame has been president since 2000 but has held power since 1994, when his rebel force entered the capital Kigali to end Rwanda’s genocide.
The debate over extending presidential terms has led to instability in other African countries such as Burundi and Congo Republic, but has not caused unrest in Rwanda.
Rwanda is voting in a referendum on a constitutional amendment to allow President Paul Kagame to seek a third term in office.
Most voters, some 6.4 million, are eligible to vote on December 18, but around 37,000 Rwandans living overseas were able to have their say on December 17.
The change would allow Paul Kagame to potentially remain in power until 2034.
Rwandans are expected to vote overwhelmingly in favor of changing the constitution.
Paul Kagame is praised at home and abroad for bringing about development and economic growth.
However, the president’s critics accuse him of heavy-handed rule and human rights abuses.
Paul Kagame himself has said he will wait for the outcome of the referendum before making his decision on whether to run in 2017.
Rwanda’s Senate approved draft constitutional amendments last month allowing Paul Kagame to run for another seven-year term.
But the amendments also shorten the length of a term from seven to five years and maintain a two-term limit.
However, those rules would not come into effect until 2024, after Paul Kagame’s third term.
Paul Kagame could then potentially run for another two five-year terms – ruling for some 40 years.
The president’s Rwanda Patriotic Front, an ethnic Tutsi rebel force, ended the 1994 genocide perpetrated by Hutu extremists.
Some 800,000 people – Tutsis and moderate Hutus – are estimated to have been killed.
Donor countries, which support the Rwandan government, have been very critical of the move to change the constitution.
The US urged Paul Kagame to step down in 2017, saying he had “an opportunity to set an example for a region in which leaders seem too tempted to view themselves as indispensable to their own countries’ trajectories”.
Paul Kagame has hit back at “other nations” for interfering in Rwanda’s internal affairs.
But the issue of African presidents seeking a third term in office has caused unrest elsewhere on the continent.
Violence has engulfed neighboring Burundi since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in April his plans to seek a third term, in violation of a peace accord that brought an end to the country’s brutal 12-year ethnic civil war.
In September, there were major protests in the Republic of Congo as President Denis Sassou Nguesso called a referendum to approve constitutional changes allowing him to stand for a third term.
People gathered for a Mass in Rwandan capital Kigali ahead of a week of official mourning to mark the 20th anniversary of the country’s genocide.
Meanwhile a diplomatic row has seen France pull out of the commemorative events.
The Mass at Sainte-Famille Catholic church in Kigali remembered those who died in the church itself or elsewhere in the country.
At least 800,000 people – mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus – died at the hands of Hutu extremists in 1994.
Most of the victims of the genocide were attacked with machetes during 100 days of slaughter that began on April 6, 1994, shortly after Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down over the Rwandan capital.
People gathered in Kigali ahead of a week of official mourning to mark the 20th anniversary of Rwanda’s genocide
Some Christian leaders were implicated in the violence.
A genocide survivor who attended the Mass, Innocent Muhozi, said: “Today’s Mass was about resurrection and I believe that one day, the souls of the people we lost will resurrect.
“This church has a very long history because many people died in it during genocide but some also survived it because they were in this church.”
Pope Francis, in his weekly address to the faithful at St Peter’s Square in the Vatican, spoke of the anniversary.
“On this occasion I would like to express my paternal closeness to the people of Rwanda, encouraging them to continue with determination and hope, the process of reconciliation that has already manifested its fruits, and the commitment of human and spiritual reconstruction of the country,” he said.
The killings in Rwanda ended in July 1994 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a Tutsi-led rebel movement that entered the country from Uganda, marched on Kigali and seized control of the country.
Yesterday, the French government announced it was pulling out of the 20th anniversary commemorations following an accusation by Rwandan President Paul Kagame – who led the RPF to victory – that France had participated in the mass killings.
France has announced that it is pulling out of the 20th anniversary commemorations on Monday for the Rwandan genocide.
The French government’s decision follows an accusation by Rwandan President Paul Kagame that France participated in the mass killings in 1994.
Paul Kagame has previously made similar allegations, which France has denied.
The French foreign ministry said the remarks went against reconciliation efforts between the two countries.
French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira has cancelled her plans to attend the events in Kigali on Monday, foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal says.
Speaking to the French-language weekly news magazine Jeune Afrique, Paul Kagame denounced the “direct role of Belgium and France in the political preparation for the genocide”.
Rwanda was a Belgian colony until 1962.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame accused France of participating in the mass killings in 1994
In the interview, due to be published on Sunday but carried out on March 27, Paul Kagame is quoted as saying that, 20 years on, “the only plausible reproach in [France’s] eyes is in not having done enough to save lives during the genocide”.
It comes as Rwanda prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of the atrocities that claimed at least 800,000 lives – mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus – over a period of about 100 days.
The violence was triggered by the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu who was killed in a plane crash on April 6, 1994.
It came to an end after Paul Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) – a Tutsi-led rebel group – defeated government troops in July that year.
His party still controls the government and has long accused France – an ally of Juvenal Habyarimana’s government at the time – of aiding the genocide.
In recent years there has been a thaw in relations between the two countries, with a visit by Paul Kagame to Paris in 2011 and the establishment by France of a genocide investigation unit.
Last month, a Paris court sentenced former Rwandan spy chief Pascal Simbikangwa to 25 years in jail for his role in the genocide – the first such conviction in France.
France has acknowledged that serious errors were made during the genocide in Rwanda.
A Rwandan commission in 2008 said France was aware of preparations for the genocide and helped train ethnic Hutu militias who participated in killings.
Paris said its forces helped protect civilians as part of an UN-mandated intervention in Rwanda. But Paul Kagame said French troops had protected the militias carrying out the killings.
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