Vice-president temporarily in charge

Following Thursday’s resignation of Hutu President Pasteur Bizimungu, the running of the country has temporarily been taken over by Vice-President Paul Kagame until an interim president is named, the country’s Chief Justice Simeon Rwagasore told IRIN on Friday. He stressed that Kagame was acting in his capacity as vice-president and was not the country’s new president as reported by some news organisations. Rwagasore explained that an interim president would be named shortly, and the process of electing the permanent incumbent would probably be completed within a month. The Rwandan Patriotic Front would put forward two names and the president would be chosen jointly by the government and national assembly. The Supreme Court would meet to set the process in motion and sort out the legal side of the succession, Rwagasore said.

The RPF political bureau began meeting on Friday to decide on the two nominees for the presidency, as stipulated in the 1993 Arusha accord. The names will then be forwarded to the joint session of parliament and cabinet for a secret ballot. According Charles Onyango-Obbo, editor of the independent Uganda daily ‘The Monitor’ and a regional analyst, Kagame “who wields real power in Rwanda” is in a strong position to assume the presidency. “At this stage, you cannot rule out the possibility of Kagame becoming president because there is no credible Hutu in the RPF to take Bizimungu’s place,” he said.