The National Revolutionary Movement for Development (french: Mouvement révolutionaire national pour le développement, MRND) was the ruling political party of

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

from 1975 to 1994 under President

Juvénal Habyarimana Juvénal Habyarimana (, ; 8 March 19376 April 1994) was a Rwandan politician and military officer who served as the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until 1994. He was nicknamed ''Kinani'', a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible". An eth ...

. From 1978 to 1991, the MRND was the only legal political party in the country. It was dominated by

Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the p ...

s, particularly from President Habyarimana's home region of Northern Rwanda. The elite group of MRND party members who were known to have influence on the President and his wife are known as the

akazu The Akazu (, ''little house'') was an informal organization of Hutu extremists whose members contributed strongly to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. A circle of relatives and close friends of Rwanda's then-president Juvénal Habyarimana and his influe ...

. In 1991, the party was renamed the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (french: Mouvement républicain national pour la démocratie et le développement). Following the

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...

in 1994, the party was banned.

History

The party was established by Habyarimana on 5 July 1975, exactly two years after he had ousted the first post-independence president

Grégoire Kayibanda Grégoire Kayibanda (1 May 192415 December 1976) 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 fo ...

in a ''coup d'état''. Habyarimana established a

totalitarian state Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...

and banned the Parmehutu party, which had been dominated by Hutus from southern Rwanda. The MRND replaced Parmehutu as the sole legally permitted party in Rwanda. A new constitution was approved in a 1978 referendum. It codified the MRND's status as the only legal party, and declared that every Rwandan citizen was automatically a member of the MRND.

Presidential elections A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

were held in 1978 with Habyarimana as the sole candidate. He was re-elected with 99% of the vote.Elections in Rwanda
African Elections Database

Parliamentary elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

followed in 1981, with two MRND candidates contesting each of the 64 seats. Habyarimana was re-elected again in 1983 and 1988, whilst parliamentary elections were held under the same system in 1983 (with the National Assembly enlarged to 70 seats) and 1988. The party's name was changed after the legalisation of opposition parties in 1991. The youth wing of the party, the ''

interahamwe The Interahamwe ( or ) is a Hutu paramilitary organization active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The Interahamwe was formed around 1990 as the youth wing of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND ...

'', later developed into a militia group that played a key role in the Genocide against Tutsi. After Habyarimana's death in April 1994, hardline elements of the party were among the chief architects of the genocide; the Coalition for the Defence of the Republic (CDR), which played a significant role, was originally a hard-line faction of the MRND that became a separate party. After Rwanda was conquered by the rival Tutsi-dominated

Rwandan Patriotic Front The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF–Inkotanyi, french: Front patriotique rwandais, FPR) is the ruling political party in Rwanda. Led by President Paul Kagame, the party has governed the country since its armed wing defeated government forces, winn ...

led by

Paul Kagame Paul Kagame (; born 23 October 1957) is a Rwandan politician and former military officer who is the 4th and current president of Rwanda since 2000. He previously served as a commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a Uganda-based rebel ...

, both the MRND and the CDR were driven from power and banned in July 1994.

Ideology

Habyarimana was described as relatively moderate, though he (and his regime) are said to have used propaganda methods of the

extreme right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of bein ...

, ethnically discriminating against the

Tutsi The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic g ...

(albeit less extreme than their predecessors), advanced a conservative social agenda and were

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...

Structure

Habyarimana was the president of the party, and as such was the only candidate for president of the republic. However, in a minor concession to democracy, voters were presented with two MRND candidates at Legislative Assembly elections.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Chamber of Deputies elections

References

{{Authority control Parties of one-party systems MRND 1975 establishments in Rwanda Political parties established in 1975 1994 disestablishments in Rwanda Political parties disestablished in 1994 Rwandan genocide Banned far-right parties