I had the opportunity to follow the campaigns of the candidates during the 22-day campaign period gazetted by the National Electoral Commission (NEC), and the rallies were starkly different from my experiences back home in Kenya, the region, and beyond.
Since the campaigns started, I did not see a single billboard or poster painted on walls and buildings in my neighbourhood or the city appealing for votes. But this did not make the campaigns any less colourful, vibrant, or exhilarating.
The candidates and individual parties invested heavily in branding to stand out among the crowded field through merchandise like T-shirts, hoodies, caps, and handheld flyers and portraits.
Rallies were not theatres for bitter exchanges between rival camps as the politicians campaigned with decorum.
Unlike what we are used to in other countries, where politicians make emotional appeals for votes, campaigns for the RPF Inkotanyi presidential flag bearer Paul Kagame, who is seeking re-election in the July 15 polls, were different.
The colourful rallies were more like celebrations, dominated by songs and dances with the president focusing more on telling the people about the country's history and how to jealously guard the gains made over the last 30 years, when the country was derailed by the Genocide against the Tutsi.
Kagame's challengers, Democratic Green Party candidate Frank Habineza and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana, were equally tolerant and focused their campaigns on selling their manifesto to the electorate rather than demonizing their opponents.
Political hostility, characterized by intense antagonism, animosity, or aggression between rival individuals, groups, or parties during campaigns in neighbouring countries and even in the ongoing US election campaigns, has not been experienced in Rwanda.
Candidates had the opportunity to peacefully promote their political ideologies in different parts of the country without being booed or forced to cut short their speeches on what is perceived as strongholds of their political rivals.
Cases of barbaric acts such as chaos, sponsored or not, which are common elsewhere, were not reported during the campaign period. This deserves applause from all of us who value democracy in the region.
The violence, witnessed during the electioneering period have in the past claimed many lives in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and several other countries in our continent.
Fifty-four people were killed in violent protests in Uganda in November 2020, just two months before the elections. Some of the victims were among a group of protesters condemning the arrest of opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, as he prepared to hold a campaign rally in Luuka, Eastern Uganda. During the confrontation, police opened fire on the protesters, and dozens of other innocent bystanders were killed by stray bullets.
In Kenya, hundreds of deaths have also been reported in past elections, with some linked to violent confrontations between rival camps.
Except for 2002, all general elections in Kenya since the country returned to multi-party politics three decades ago have been marred by violence. At least 1,500 people lost their lives during the 2007-2008 Post-election Violence.
However, the 2022 general election was much more peaceful, except for pockets of violence reported after the announcement of the presidential election results.
In Burundi, widespread violence were also reported ahead of the 2020 general election with the main National Congress for Liberty accusing the government of arbitrary arrests of more than 600 of its members.
While the causes of the violence remain debatable, there is a growing consensus that no one deserves to lose their lives during elections in the continent as human life is sacrosanct.
In Rwanda, the peace and tranquillity experienced during the campaign period are attributed to a unique governance architecture based on the country's painful history.
This unique context, which takes into consideration the ethnic animosity that led to the killing of more than a million people by the extremist Hutu-led government, has demystified the heated and aggressive campaigns experienced in many other democracies.
Wycliffe Nyamasege
Source : https://en.igihe.com/opinion/article/lessons-from-rwanda-s-peaceful-election-campaigns
