KIGALI: Rwandan President Paul Kagame has won a landslide election victory that will extend his rule with an iron fist for another five years, according to partial results released on Monday.
De facto leader since the end of the genocide in 1994 and president since 2000, Kagame won 99.15 percent of the vote, the National Electoral Commission announced after 79 percent of ballots were counted.
It surpasses the 98.79 percent Kagame won in the last election in 2017, and is streets ahead of Democratic Green Party candidate Frank Habineza with 0.53 percent and independent Philippe Mpayimana with 0.32 percent.
Democratic Green Party candidate Frank Habineza received 0.53 percent of the vote and independent Philippe Mpayimana received 0.32 percent of the vote.
The outcome of Monday’s poll was never in doubt, Kagame was accused of muzzling the opposition and several prominent critics were expelled from the race.
With 65 percent of the population under 30, Kagame – who secured a fourth term – is the only leader most Rwandans have ever known.
The 66-year-old is credited with rebuilding the traumatized nation after the genocide, but is also accused of reigning in a climate of fear at home and fomenting instability in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Reset the clock –
Over nine million Rwandans – about two million first-time voters – were registered to vote, with the presidential race being held simultaneously with parliamentary elections for the first time.
“(Kagame) gives us everything we ask him for, like health insurance. That’s why he’s winning by a big margin,” said Francois Rwabakina, a 34-year-old mechanic.
Kagame won with more than 93 percent of the vote in 2003, 2010 and 2017, when he again easily defeated the same challengers.
He oversaw controversial constitutional amendments that shortened presidential terms from seven to five years and adjusted the clock for the Rwandan leader, allowing him to rule until 2034.
Rwandan courts have rejected appeals by prominent opposition figures Bernard Ntaganda and Victoire Ingabire to overturn previous convictions that effectively disqualified them from voting on Monday.
The Electoral Commission also banned high-profile Kagame critic Diane Rwigara, citing problems with her papers – the second time she has been barred from running.
Dressed in a green shirt and sunglasses, Kagame cast his vote in Kigali around noon.
The imbalance between the candidates was evident during the three-week campaign as the well-oiled PR machine of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) went into overdrive.
The RPF’s red, white and blue colors and its slogans “Tora Kagame Paul” (“Vote Paul Kagame”) and “PK24” “Paul Kagame 2024”) were everywhere.
His opponents struggled to make their voices heard, with some events drawing barely 100 people.
Despite lackluster attendance at his rallies, Habineza welcomed the “free and fair atmosphere”.
“This is a very good demonstration of the level of growth of democracy in our country. We were able to campaign (across) the whole country,” he told AFP on Monday.
Kagame’s RPF militias are praised for ending the 1994 genocide when they marched on Kigali – driving out Hutu extremists who unleashed 100 days of bloodshed targeting the Tutsi minority.
The perpetrators killed around 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis, but also moderate Hutus. Since then, Kagame has overseen a remarkable economic recovery, with GDP growing at an average annual rate of 7.2 percent between 2012 and 2022, even as the World Bank reports that nearly half the population lives on less than $2.15 a day.
