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 established a totalitarian state and banned the Parmehutu party, which had been dominated by Hutus from southern Rwanda.

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.