Diane Rwigara, a well-known critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, expressed her disappointment on Friday after being disqualified from running in next month’s election, which would challenge Kagame’s nearly 30-year rule.
Rwigara, who leads the People Salvation Movement, announced her candidacy in May and submitted her paperwork last week. However, her name was not included on the provisional list of candidates released by the electoral commission on Thursday.
“After all the time, work, and effort I put in, I am very disappointed to hear I am not on the list of presidential candidates,” the 42-year-old, who was also disqualified from the 2017 election, shared on X. “Paul Kagame, why won’t you let me run?”
The electoral commission cited her failure to provide a required criminal record statement and her inability to secure the necessary 600 supporting signatures from citizens as reasons for her disqualification.
Only two other candidates, Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party and independent Philippe Mpayimana, were approved to run against Kagame. The final list of candidates will be announced on June 14, a month before the presidential and parliamentary elections on July 15.
Rwigara faced similar issues in 2017, when she was barred from running due to allegations of forging supporters’ signatures. She was subsequently arrested and charged with forgery and inciting insurrection, spending more than a year in prison.
Rwigara is the daughter of Assinapol Rwigara, a former major donor to Kagame’s ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front, who later fell out with its leadership.
President Kagame, Rwanda’s leader since the 1994 genocide and president since 2000, has won three elections with over 90% of the vote and is expected to win again in July. While he has been praised for Rwanda’s economic transformation post-genocide, he is frequently criticized for human rights abuses and his intolerance of political opposition.
Leading up to this election, Rwandan courts have already dismissed appeals from prominent opposition figures Bernard Ntaganda and Victoire Ingabire to overturn previous convictions, effectively preventing them from running.