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A court in Rwanda has blocked efforts by prominent opposition figure Victoire Ingabire to lift a ban on her running in July’s presidential election.<\/p>\n
She was freed in 2018 after spending eight years in prison for threatening state security and “belittling” the 1994 genocide.<\/p>\n
In Rwanda, people who have been jailed for more than six months are barred from running in elections.<\/p>\n
Ms Ingabire said the court’s ruling was politicised.<\/p>\n
“The refusal of my rehabilitation is not merely a personal attack but is emblematic of the broader issues facing our nation, issues that human rights organisations and development partners of Rwanda have long criticised,” Ms Ingabire said in a statement released on X<\/a>, formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n Outside court in the capital, Kigali, the 55-year-old politician said: “I don’t agree with what the judge said, and unfortunately you can’t appeal before two years.<\/p>\n “We are still far from a law-abiding country.”<\/p>\n Ms Ingabire is an outspoken critic of President Paul Kagame, who has been the dominant force in the country for three decades.<\/p>\n He secured more than 90% of the votes in presidential elections in 2003, 2010 and 2017 – and changes to constitution mean he could potentially stay in power for another 10 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 66-year-old president has faced criticism from rights groups, which have accused him of cracking down on the opposition.<\/p>\n But Mr Kagame has in the past fiercely defended Rwanda’s record on human rights, saying his country respects political freedoms.<\/p>\n There is currently only one challenger to the president in July’s election in the shape of the Green Party’s Frank Habineza, the AFP news agency reports.<\/p>\n He won 0.45% of the vote in 2017.<\/p>\n In 2010, Ms Ingabire returned from exile in the Netherlands to take part in that year’s presidential election.<\/p>\n But she was arrested, prevented from standing and later sentenced to 15 years in prison. After she was pardoned in 2018<\/a>, she went on to found the Dalfa-Umurinzi opposition party.<\/p>\n Ms Ingabire, a member of the Hutu ethnic group, had got into trouble for questioning why Rwanda’s official memorial to the 1994 genocide did not include any Hutus.<\/p>\n Most of the 800,000 people killed in the space of 100 days were ethnic Tutsis but Hutu moderates were also slaughtered by the Hutu extremists.<\/p>\n Mr Kagame’s Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebel group – now a political party – put an end to the genocide.<\/p>\n <\/div>\nYou may also be interested in:<\/h3>\n