In a widely anticipated but controversial outcome, Rwanda’s incumbent president Paul Kagame has won the country’s recent presidential election, securing a staggering 99.15% of the votes cast.
As reported by The East African, this marks Kagame’s fourth consecutive term in office, following previous election victories where he has consistently won over 93% of the vote.
A total of eight candidates had initially applied to run against Kagame, but ultimately, only two were permitted to contest the election by the country’s electoral commission.
This decision has fueled allegations of a tightly controlled political landscape and a lack of genuine opposition.
The others, including Kagame’s most vocal critics, were barred for various reasons that included prior criminal convictions.
Kagame was running against two other candidates, Frank Habineza and Philippe Mpayimana, who also challenged him at the last poll in 2017.
The 66-year-old Kagame thanked Rwandans for their trust in an address at his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party headquarters. He said:
These are not just figures, even if it was 100%, these are not just numbers. [They] show the trust, and that is what is most important.
With about 79% of ballots counted, partial results announced by the electoral commission show Kagame had won 99.15% of the vote while his two opponents shared less than 1% of the vote.
Kagame’s opponents – environmentalist Frank Habineza and ex-journalist and government adviser Philippe Mpayimana – have 0.53% and 0.32% respectively.
The full provisional results are due by 20 July and the final ones by 27 July.
The overwhelming victory for Kagame, who has dominated Rwandan politics since the end of the country’s civil war in 1994, has reinforced concerns about the erosion of democratic norms and the concentration of power within the incumbent’s hands.
Critics have long argued that Kagame’s rule has been characterized by a crackdown on dissent, the suppression of political opposition, and the curtailment of civil liberties.
More: Pindula News