Presidential elections were held in

Rwanda 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 ...

on 24 December 1978, a week after the country's new constitution was approved in a

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

. The constitution had made the country a

one-party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...

with the National Revolutionary Movement for Development (MRND) the sole legal party. Its leader, incumbent President

Juvénal Habyarimana Juvénal Habyarimana (; ; 8 March 19376 April 1994) was a Rwandan politician and military officer who was the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until Assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, his assassination in 1994. H ...

, who had taken power in the 1973 coup d'état, was the only candidate. The results showed 99% of votes in favour of his candidacy.Elections in Rwanda
African Elections Database

Results

References

Presidential elections in Rwanda 1978 in Rwanda One-party elections

Single-candidate elections Election and referendum articles with incomplete results December 1978 in Africa {{africa-election-stub