Rwandese National Union
political party in Rwanda
The Rwandese National Union (French: Union nationale rwandaise, UNAR) was a conservative, pro-monarchy political party in Rwanda.
History
Founding and early activities
Union Nationale Rwandaise (Rwandese National Union), or UNAR, was a conservative Rwandan political party. Founded on 3 September 1959, by François Rukeba, and strongly supported by King Kigeri V. At the time, Rwanda was still under Belgian administration, and UNAR was the leading monarchist party. It called for immediate independence under a hereditary Tutsi constitutional monarchy. Michel Rwagasana became its secretary general.
The party boycotted the 1960 local elections, but participated in the 1961 parliamentary elections, receiving 17% of the vote, winning 7 of the 44 seats in the Legislative Assembly. Its rival PARMEHUTU won the majority in the assembly. In February 1962 the United Nations brokered a compromise, the New York Accord, in attempt to ensure Rwandan politics remained inclusive. The agreement called for PARMEHUTU under Grégoire Kayibanda to form a coalition government with UNAR, guaranteeing the latter two ministerial portfolios in the government. UNAR subsequently joined a coalition government with the victorious PARMEHUTU, and was given the cabinet posts responsible for cattle and public health.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 9, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7885867. VIAF identifies the subject as 131763029. The Library of Congress control number is no2010020299. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1962.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rwandese National Union” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.