Brexit: People’s will must be respected across the board

Editor, RE: “David Cameron resigns as UK shocks the world by voting for Brexit” (The New Times, June 24). With more than 30 million people (71.8% of eligible voters) casting their ballot in this referendum (the highest for a UK-wide vote since the 1992 general election), and with 52% supporting the choice to leave, those politicians pushing for the UK to remain in the EU have just been decisively disavowed and have no choice but to recognize the wreckage of their supra-European state project. I like how in his speech David Cameron recognizes that, “The British people have voted to leave the EU and their will must be respected”; that “The will of the British people is an INSTRUCTION that MUST BE DELIVERED.” Note that these instructions represent a mere 52% of 71.8% of those eligible to cast their vote, i.e. 37.34% of those eligible to cast their vote. in Rwanda last December 98% of those eligible participated in the national referendum to amend article 101 of our constitution, with 98.3% of those casting their vote supporting the amendment (i.e. 97.3% of all those eligible to vote supported the amendment). Interestingly, similar patterns were observed among the over 40,000 Rwandan voters in the Diaspora. And yet what lectures have we been receiving from the Europeans, including from Whitehall, and the Americans? It is that, unlike the voice of the 37.3% of the eligible British electorate who have voted to divorce Europe (i.e. 62.7% didn’t support Brexit), the Rwandan Government, and especially President Paul Kagame, should pay absolutely no heed to the 97.3% of the Rwandan electorate who have made it clear they want him to remain longer at the helm of Rwanda, Inc. Was there ever a better opportunity to show the incoherence of the self-appointed teachers of democratic behaviour? Mwene Kalinda

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Brexit: People’s will must be respected across the board