The party was established by Habyarimana on 5 July 1975,[6] exactly two years after he had ousted the first post-independence president Grégoire Kayibanda in a coup d'état.

Habyarimana was re-elected again in 1983 and 1988, whilst parliamentary elections were held under the same system in 1983 (with the National Assembly enlarged to 70 seats) and 1988.

The youth wing of the party, the interahamwe, later developed into a militia group that played a key role in the Genocide against Tutsi.

After Rwanda was conquered by the rival Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front led by Paul Kagame, both the MRND and the CDR were driven from power and banned in July 1994.

[12] Habyarimana was described as relatively moderate,[13][14] though he (and his regime) are said to have used propaganda methods, ethnically discriminating against the Tutsi (albeit less extreme than their predecessors),[14][15] advanced a conservative social agenda[3] and were anti-communist.