98 pct of Rwandans vote for constitutional change in referendum

More than 98 percent of Rwandans voted for revising the Constitution in Friday's referendum, paving the way for President Paul Kagame to seek re-election after his second seven-year term expires in 2017.

About 6.4 million voters participated in the referendum and early results after 21 districts out of 30 were counted showed that 98.1 percent of voters voted "Yes."

With votes in nine districts remaining to be counted, a significant change in the final result will be hardly likely.

Revising the Constitution requires an absolute majority, or the "Yes" votes accounting for more than 50 percent of the total votes.

"This is the will of the people...They called for a change of the Constitution and they have made it," said Kalisa Mbanda, chairperson of the National Electoral Commission.

However, some questioned the referendum, which was announced only one week in advance.

In a statement Friday, the Delegation of the European Union to Rwanda expressed concern that the one week run-up to the referendum in Rwanda neither fully explained the constitutional changes, nor offered sufficient time for debate.

"The text of the draft Constitution adopted by the Parliament was only published less than one day ahead of the voting. The short time between the announcement and the holding of the referendum left little or no opportunity for all parties to present their arguments, despite government assurances that time would be allocated for an open exchange of opinions," the statement said.

"In addition, we regret that no process allowing for independent monitoring was put in place," it said.

The opposition Democratic Green Party of Rwanda also said in a statement that the manner in which the election was held did not guarantee a level playing field since the cabinet issued a one-week short notice for the referendum to be conducted.

"This would not be enough time for a meaningful campaign," it said.

Kagame, who cast his vote late Friday morning at a polling station in the capital of Kigali, told reporters that what was happening was people's choice and declined to say whether he would participate in the election again after the Constitution is revised.

In Kigali, thousands gathered at an indoor stadium to celebrate the referendum results.

Revellers were following the referendum results broadcast live on national radio and television.

They said their dream to keep Kagame in power after 2017 had been realized. They believe this can guarantee development and stability of the country.

The decision to hold a referendum was made after close to 4 million Rwandans had petitioned the parliament to lift term limits to allow Kagame to run for a third term. Endi