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 Equat ...

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 prin ...

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. 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 in a ''coup d'état''. Habyarimana established a totalitarian state 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 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 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

and

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicentenn ...

, whilst parliamentary elections were held under the same system in

(with the National Assembly enlarged to 70 seats) and

. 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 f ...

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

Ideology

Habyarimana was described as relatively

moderate Moderate is an ideological category which designates a rejection of radical or extreme views, especially in regard to politics and religion. A moderate is considered someone occupying any mainstream position avoiding extreme views. In American ...

, though he (and his regime) are said to have used propaganda methods of the extreme right, 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 grou ...

(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