President Paul Kagame on Thursday called on thousands of voters in Gisagara District to vote for RPF-Inkotanyi in the upcoming parliamentary elections so that the party can continue working to develop the area and the entire country.

President Kagame, who is also the party’s Chairman, delivered the message in the district’s Muganza Sector where he joined RPF-Inkotanyi candidates in campaigning for seats in the country’s next Lower Chamber of Parliament.

General elections for parliament are slated for September 3.

He urged voters in the area and across the country to vote for his party’s candidates because they will be crucial in representing people’s interests as the party works to develop the country.

"Citizens working hand in hand with RPF is the foundation of the progress we have achieved to date. We want to take even larger steps towards prosperity and work together, as a country and community to build the nation we want,” Kagame said.

The cheerful voters in the area pledged their votes to RPF, which they credit for developing Gisagara District by building its roads, preparing its marshlands for agriculture, and connecting its residents to water and electricity.

RPF is campaigning with six other political parties as part of a coalition, whose representatives also feature on the parliamentary aspirants’ list submitted by the ruling party.

In a testimony to the participants of the rally, Tatiana Niyonsaba, a resident of Gisagara, shared that RPF built a house for her and gave her a cow after finding her as a helpless widow struggling to raise six children.

Today she is able to provide for her family and runs a small retailing business in addition to being a farmer.

The Governor of the Southern Province, Marie-Rose Mureshyankwano, also lauded the RPF-led government for having developed Gisagara district by connecting it to electricity, developing agriculture in the area by preparing its marshlands, and building feeder roads to facilitate transport here.

The governor said that among other things that the district still hopes to achieve under the RPF’s leadership includes better roads, increased access to water and electricity, and creation of more jobs.

Addressing the challenges that Gisagara and the rest of the nation continue to face, Kagame committed to increasing efforts towards providing solutions.

"RPF is also about recognizing where we have not delivered because our way of work is defined by accountability to you, the citizens. We ask you to give us the privilege to lead you and the opportunity to deliver where we have fallen short,” Kagame added.

At the rally, leaders of the six allied parties also pledged their support the party’s parliamentary candidates.

The parties in coalition with the RPF include the Ideal Democratic Party (PDI), the Centrist Democratic Party (PDC), Democratic Union of Rwandese People (UDPR), Party for Progress and Concord (PPC), Party for Solidarity and Progress (PSP), and Rwandese Socialist Labour Party (PSR).

President Kagame pointed to RPF’s founding value of unity, emphasizing that it has been crucial for the country’s development.  

"There is no one else who will come from elsewhere who can take you where RPF can take the citizens of this country because RPF is grounded in unity and nothing can replace unity,” Kagame said.

Parliamentary elections are slated for early September, when some 7.1 million Rwandans will elect MPs who will take seats in the Lower House of what will be the country’s fourth democratically elected parliament since the end of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw