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The democratization process in Rwanda has long been characterized by ethnic politics, punctuated by the 1993 genocide. The country's perennial efforts to venture into democratic governance via electoral practice appear to be pre-empted by the exclusionist and zero-sum nature of ethnic politics, especially in deeply divided societies. This paper sets out to analyse the nature of the 2003 presidential and parliamentary elections. While doing so, the article attempts to address two crucial concerns: 1) what was the impact of ethnic politics on the electoral process and results and 2) did these elections contribute to the democratization process in Rwanda? The article will argue that these elections did little to overcome ethnic political dynamics and only modestly advanced the democratization ethos. While the process and outcome were deemed 'acceptable' and a 'first step in the right direction', the exercise highlighted a number of challenges which the article attempts to analyse. (Ethnopolitics)