Frank Habineza: Green party is in a much stronger state this time

Green Party presidential candidate in the general elections, Frank Habineza, has claimed that he is better positioned this time around, thanks to a number of achievements the party has registered and structures it has put in place. In an interview with The New Times, the 47-year-old, who previously contested in the 2017 presidential elections and in the 2018 parliamentary elections, said he and his party have gleaned valuable lessons and gathered experience through their previous political endeavours, a factor that makes them better. ALSO READ: Green Party pledges to lower retirement age to 60 In the last elections, for instance, we lacked women's and youth structures at the district level. However, this year we managed to put them in place. In addition, our party currently has three parliamentarians – two in the lower chamber and one in the senate. We also have people in local administrative councils. We are stronger as a party than we were before,” he said. In the 2017 polls, Habineza secured less than one percent of the votes as Kagame clinched a 99 percent landslide victory. Unfazed by the setback, the Green Party persisted in its political endeavours, contesting the 2018 parliamentary elections where it managed to win two parliamentary seats. Later on, it also fronted one of its members for a senate position, through the Political Parties’ Forum, and successfully secured it. “We also encouraged our members to go for leadership posts in local government structures. We got one member who is now on the district council of Rulindo. That was a success. We also have more people in youth councils, for example in Kicukiro district,” he noted. Habineza also told The New Times that there are many successes his party achieved in terms of leading to friendly policies and laws. For example, he noted that the increase of teachers’ salaries and the reduction of taxes are a few of the many points that the government made, in response to what the Green Party was pushing for in 2017 and the subsequent years. “Almost 70 percent of what we had in our manifesto in 2017 has been achieved. The government and the ruling party accepted most of our ideas and put them into implementation either as policies or laws,” he said. “The issue of increasing teachers’ salaries was one of the key issues we raised. We had also promised to provide hot meals for school children. I am very happy that the government accepted these proposals,” he added. ALSO READ: Rwanda Decides: Youth comprise 42% of final voters’ list Among other things, he noted that he championed an argument in parliament for the reduction of land taxes, which the government implemented when it cut them from Rwf 300 to Rwf 80. In addition, he noted that the move by the government to ensure that people who use the community based health insurance (mutuelle) can get services as soon as they have paid their contribution, was also an idea in Green Party’s manifesto. “So, we go into this election with something to talk about. We can tell the voters that we promised and have been able to deliver. We are not here as first comers who voters can ask, ‘what have you done?’ We have achievements to present to the voters. This is a big difference that makes us believe that this election will be much different and much better,” he argued. Talking about the strategies he is employing in the campaign rallies for the general elections, Habineza said his party is leveraging its lower structures at district level as well as making more use of social media. “We used it (social media) last time but we are going to use it more this time, as well as (traditional) media. People are using more of YouTube, Facebook, X and so on. We are going to see how to improve on that,” he noted.

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Frank Habineza: Green party is in a much stronger state this time