RPF cannot turn away genuine suitors to its ranks

As parliamentary elections draw closer, every political party is putting together plans for winning seats. The official campaign being as short as just 20 days (August 25–September 15), a lot of the ground work goes on ahead of time. In the race there will be stronger political parties than others. There have been reports that weaker parties who figure out they have little chance of winning seats on their own are courting the Rwanda Patriotic Front for alliances, it being the strongest of them all. That way they would be assured of taking home something if they struck a deal that would enable them hunt for votes side by side with the party equipped with the most formidable political weapons. Yesterday during a press conference at his office, a question was put to President Paul Kagame, also RPF party chairman, as to whether forging political partnerships with the weak will not have a negative effect on his own party’s fortunes. Implied in the journalist’s question too was the fear that in a situation where all the weak are happy to join the powerful, there might soon be no opposition to write home about. The President subtly tackled the question but not after admitting it was the type which posed a dilemma. He said that while democratic setups may be widely defined as those able to present more than one formidable opposing side, that context is not necessarily the only rational one. In his explanation President Kagame said the problem would arise if the strong was unlawfully or unethically working to undermine the other political organisations with the selfish aim of annihilating them. Otherwise where joiners are attracted by the desire to associate themselves with the party whose policies and programmes are the reason for its success, turning them away for the sake of maintaining solid opposition would be politically nonsensical. Neither would it be morally right to shun people whose sole intention is to survive politically - bringing some votes along with them, not to forget - and not putting any unfavourable conditions on the table. We cannot agree more with RPF’s attitude. Ends

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RPF cannot turn away genuine suitors to its ranks