Rwandan opposition politician Diane Rwigara submitted her papers to run for President in the forthcoming general election slated for July this year.

Today is the last day given by the electoral commission in Rwanda to submit applications to run for president. Currently, she is the only woman to battle it out against President Paul Kagame who is running for another term.

When Diane Shima Rwigara arrived at the election commission in the presence of a crowd of journalists – she entered the election commission room and handed over the paper to run for the presidency to the chairman of the commission Mrs. Oda Gasinzigwa, later told the media that he hopes this time his request will be accepted.

“As I said in 2017, looking for supporters’ signatures was a difficult task compared to this year. This year we did not get any objections from the country’s leaders as was the case in the past. It is a good thing that we are enjoying the moment, although small problems cannot be missed such as taking pictures of my agents in some places, but in general things so far are calm. Let me say that my hope is great that my request will be accepted this time because I fulfill all the requirements. There are some papers that I have been accepted to bring later, I hope I will be allowed to campaign and win.”

In 2017, his application was rejected because the election commission said that he did not meet the criteria mentioned by the election commission.

Among the election commission’s criteria for each presidential candidate is to have the signatures of 600 supporters across the country, i.e. 20 people from each district among the 30 districts of Rwanda. At that time the electoral commission said that Diane Rwigara had forged the signature.