Rwandans elected their President and Members of Parliament on July 14, 15 and 16, 2024, following three weeks of campaigning. In an interview with a TV5 Monde journalist, Muyaya claimed that the elections in Rwanda were held in discretion and that no credible observers were present to monitor them.
He claimed to have only seen the RPF observer, not an observer from the European Union or any recognized election monitoring bodies.
In response, Nduhungirehe has rebuked Muyaya' comments stating that Rwanda's campaign and elections were largely calm, and peaceful unlike what happened in the DRC general elections on December 20, 2023.
He reminded Muyaya that elections in his country were marred by acts of violence and sometimes death, therefore he has not moral authority to criticize what happened in Rwanda.
'In the DRC elections, voting equipment was stolen in various places, some found in the homes of members of the ruling UDPS party, polling stations were vandalized, and citizens were prevented from voting,' Nduhungirehe said.
He highlighted constant insecurity and other political challenges in the DRC influenced by its government in which people including national army officers are executed due to their physical appearance.
On July 13, 2023, the spokesperson of Ensemble pour la Republique, the main opposition party in DRC was shot dead in his car in the capital Kinshasa.
Though the DRC government later said that this was a suicide, it was widely seen as a political assassination aimed at silencing political opponents in the country.
Overtime, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi has portrayed himself as a violent person threatening to overthrow the government Rwanda or bomb its capital Kigali on several occasions.
Concerning the claim that "no reputable observation mission" was deployed in Rwanda during the elections, Nduhungirehe noted that several observation missions from five regional and international organizations, of which the DRC is a full member, were assigned in Kigali.
These include the African Union (AU), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC), Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC), and the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF).
"I was therefore unaware that the DRC government still lived in a bygone era of intellectual and moral 'bleaching,' to the point of trying to discredit African organizations of which it is a member,' he concluded.
The electoral commission announced that the elections went smoothly. This was confirmed by various observers who monitored them. Partial results showed that Paul Kagame, the candidate of RPF Inkotanyi, received 99.15% of the votes, Dr. Frank Habineza 0.53%, and Philippe Mpayimana 0.32%.
IGIHE
Source : https://en.igihe.com/news/article/rwanda-castigates-drc-criticisms-on-election-transparency
