The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic, is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is the supreme magistracy of the country, the position is the highest office in France. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, in addition to their relation with the prime minister and government of France, have over time differed with the various constitutional documents since the Second Republic.
Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is highly elevated, giving it the sobriquet "land of a thousand hills", with its geography dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the southeast, with numerous lakes throughout the country. The climate is temperate to subtropical, with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons each year. It is the most densely populated mainland African country; among countries larger than 10,000 km2, it is the fifth-most densely populated country in the world. Its capital and largest city is Kigali.
Rwanda is a de facto one-party state ruled by the Rwandan Patriotic Front and its leader Paul Kagame since the end of the 1994 genocide against members of the Tutsi ethnic group. Although Rwanda is nominally democratic, elections are manipulated in various ways, which include banning opposition parties, arresting or assassinating critics, and electoral fraud.
Rwanda has diplomatic relations with most members of the United Nations and with the Holy See.
The president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the head of state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
The president of Gabon is the head of state of Gabon. A total of three people have served as president since the post was formed in 1960.
Paul Kagame is a Rwandan politician and former military officer who has been the President of Rwanda since 2000. He was previously a commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel armed force which invaded Rwanda in 1990. The RPF was one of the parties of the conflict during the Rwandan Civil War and the armed force which ended the Rwandan genocide. He was considered Rwanda's de facto leader when he was Vice President and Minister of Defence under President Pasteur Bizimungu from 1994 to 2000 after which the vice-presidential post was abolished.
The President of the Republic of Mauritius is the head of state of the Republic of Mauritius. Mauritius is a parliamentary republic, and the president functions as a ceremonial figurehead, elected by the National Assembly as set out by the Constitution of Mauritius. The current office-holder is Prithvirajsing Roopun. He took the office on 2 December 2019. The president's official residence is the State House.
The president of Senegal is the head of state and head of government of Senegal. In accordance with the constitutional reform of 2001 and since a referendum that took place on 20 March 2016, the president is elected for a 5-year term, with a limit of two consecutive terms. The following is a list of presidents of Senegal, since the country gained independence from France in 1960.
The president of Tunisia, officially the president of the Republic of Tunisia, is the head of state since the creation of the position on 25 July 1957. In this capacity, he exercises executive power with the assistance of a government headed by the Prime Minister in a presidential system. According to Article 87 of the 2022 Constitution, he is the commander-in-chief of the Tunisian Armed Forces. Under the Constitution, the president is elected by direct universal suffrage for a term of five years, renewable once.
The Rwandan Patriotic Front is the ruling political party in Rwanda.
Grégoire Kayibanda was a Rwandan politician and revolutionary who was the first elected President of Rwanda from 1962 to 1973. An ethnic Hutu, he was a pioneer of the Rwandan Revolution and led Rwanda's struggle for independence from Belgium, replacing the Tutsi monarchy with a republican form of government. Rwanda became independent from Belgium in 1962, with Kayibanda serving as the country's first president, establishing a pro-Hutu policy and a de facto one-party system governed by his party, Parmehutu. He was overthrown in a coup d'état in 1973 by his defense minister, Juvénal Habyarimana, and died three years later.
The Constitution of Rwanda was adopted by referendum on May 26, 2003. It replaced the Constitution of 1991.
Faustin-Archange Touadéra is a Central African politician and academic who has been President of the Central African Republic since March 2016. He previously was Prime Minister of the Central African Republic from January 2008 to January 2013. In the December 2015 – February 2016 presidential election, he was elected to the presidency in a second round of voting against former prime minister Anicet Georges Dologuélé. He was re-elected for a second term on 27 December 2020.
Presidential elections were held in Rwanda on 9 August 2010, the second since the Rwandan Civil War. Incumbent President Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was re-elected for a second seven-year term with 93% of the vote.
The Cabinet of Rwanda consists of the Prime Minister, Ministers, Ministers of State and other members nominated by the President. Members of Cabinet are selected from political organisations based on the number of seats they hold in the Chamber of Deputies, but members of Cabinet cannot themselves belong to the Chamber.
A constitutional referendum was held in Rwanda on 18 December 2015. Rwandans living abroad voted on 17 December. The amendments to the constitution would allow President Paul Kagame to run for a third term in office in 2017, as well as shortening presidential terms from seven to five years, although the latter change would not come into effect until 2024. They were approved by around 98% of voters.
Charles Auguste Onana is a French-Cameroonian political scientist, investigative journalist, essayist, and publisher. He is known for his controversial writings concerning the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
