92% Rwandans want Kagame for third term - Survey

Even as the country holds a referendum tomorrow to decide whether President Paul Kagame should stand for re-election for a third term, a survey has showed that 92% Rwandans would vote for him in any election.

The survey, conducted by Ipsos a global research firm, in conjunction with the Kampala based Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE) also indicates that 70% Rwandans don’t support restrictions of Constitutional term limits.

“There’s is a negative perception of Rwanda that we have not found in this survey. The public holds President Kagame in high esteem and would still vote for him in another election,” Dr Arthur Bainomugisha, the ACODE Executive Director commented at release held at Serena Hotel in Kigali on Wednesday evening.

“The perception about the president is attributed to the current economic performance of the country and his commitment to fighting poverty, promotion of peace and stability, and fighting corruption,” he explained.

Presenting the report, Ipsos Country Manager, Virginia Nkwanzi – Isingoma said that the survey was conducted between July 30 and August 18, this year. She said

The overall purpose was to establish the citizens’ perceptions about the Social, Political and Economic conditions of Rwanda.

She explained that the study sought to gauge the public perception about governance issues, poverty levels and economic performance.

Methodology:

The survey was quantitative using structured questionnaires which were translated to Kinyarwanda and administered on a sample of 2,036 respondents in 33 districts.

The data was collected by a local Rwandan field team which was prior trained on research methods and data collection. The raw data was collected using handheld electronic devices. Rwandans of 18 years and above nationwide were interviewed.

The method was random household sampling with use of a Kish grid. The Kish selection grid is a method for selecting members within a household to be interviewed using a pre-assigned table of random numbers to find the person to be interviewed. The survey had a sampling error of +-2% at 95% confidence level.

Most of the respondents were in rural areas (78%) while the rest were in urban centres (22%). Fifty nine per cent of the interviewees were female while the rest were male. The ranged between 18-45 years.

Sample distribution, approval and selection of enumeration areas was done with support from the National Institute of Statistics Rwanda (NISR) – which also provided the research visa.