Presidential elections were held in

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 ...

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

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

. 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 type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...

with the

National Revolutionary Movement for Development The National Revolutionary Movement for Development (french: Mouvement révolutionaire national pour le développement, MRND) was the ruling political party of Rwanda from 1975 to 1994 under President Juvénal Habyarimana. From 1978 to 1991, the ...

(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 served as the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until 1994. He was nicknamed ''Kinani'', a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible". An ethn ...

, 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 events in Africa {{africa-election-stub