Democratic Republican Movement

The Democratic Republican Movement (MDR, French: Mouvement démocratique républicain) was a political party of Rwanda. It was founded in 1991, after the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND) lost its monopoly on politics and opposition parties became legal. The MDR took its name from President Grégoire Kayibanda's political party, Parmehutu-MDR. Like Parmehutu, the MDR's primary base of political support was in the center of the country, particularly Kayibanda's home prefecture of Gitarama.

In late 1991, the MDR joined with the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party to form an opposition coalition that placed pressure on President Juvénal Habyarimana and the MRND to implement democratic reforms. In March 1992, President Habyarimana named a multiparty government with a prime minister, Dismas Nsengiyaremye, from the MDR.^[1] He was succeeded as prime minister in July 1993 by another MDR figure, Agathe Uwilingiyimana.

Following their 1994 victory, the RPF named a new Broad Based Government of National Unity with the MDR's Faustin Twagiramungi as prime minister. The party was banned in 2006 following allegations that it promoted genocide ideology against Tutsi.

The MDR was primarily Hutu in composition. It is not to be confused with the former MRND party, which was the dominant party of Rwanda until 1994.

The current Prime Minister of Rwanda, Bernard Makuza, was a member of the MDR.

References

1. ^ Gérard Prunier, The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide, New York: Columbia University Press, 1995, 145.