Rwanda to open debate on third-term for Kagame

Rwanda's parliament was set to open a debate Monday on amending the constitution to let strongman and President Paul Kagame run for a third term in 2017.

MPs were due to "examine the relevance of the draft of revision of the Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda as amended to date," said a parliamentary statement.

Kagame has run Rwanda since his rebel army ended the 1994 genocide.

He won elections in 2003 and 2010 and, under the current law, is due to step aside in 2017 at the end of his second consecutive term.

But earlier this year, more than 60 percent of voters signed a petition calling for constitutional changes to be drafted that would allow Kagame to stand again in 2017, an initiative that has already rubber-stamped by both houses of parliament. AFP