Rwandan voters lined up at polling stations on Monday to choose the next president. Paul Kagame, 66, who has ruled Rwanda for nearly a quarter of a century, is expected to win, African Media reported.
This is the fourth presidential vote since more than 800,000 people, mostly members of the Tutsi ethnic minority, were killed in the country’s genocide 30 years ago.
Kagame, who led the rebel group Rwandan Patriotic Front, which defeated extremist Hutu forces and ended the genocide, came to power in 2000 after Pasteur Bizimungu resigned.
Since then, he has won more than 90 per cent of the vote in three previous elections – in 2003, 2010 and 2017. Running for the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), Kagame is seeking a fourth seven-year term, after a 2015 constitutional amendment expanded presidential term limits.
Kagame is credited with transforming Rwanda from ethnically divided to a united country and regional business centre. But critics accuse his administration of censorship and restricting human rights in a country of 13 million people, more than 9 million of whom are eligible to vote in Monday’s election.
He also faces the same opponents in this election as in 2017: Frank Habinyeza of Rwanda’s Democratic Green Party and Philip Mpaimana, an independent candidate.
Drop-outs from the Rwanda elections
Rwanda’s National Electoral Commission disqualified six other candidates for various reasons, including fierce critics Kagame Victoire Ingabire, Diana Rwigara and Bernard Ntaganda. Kagame’s campaign priorities were security, stability, unity and economic development. He said at a rally in the northern Gakenke district on Thursday:
“We chose to rebuild ourselves and our country, which was destroyed by bad politics and irresponsible leaders. As for you, you have rebuilt yourselves, you have built your skills, and you have competent leaders at all levels. Therefore, you must do everything possible to ensure that Rwanda continues its path towards sustainable progress.”
Meanwhile, Rwanda’s parliamentary elections will run alongside the presidential elections, with 500 candidates running for 80 seats in the lower house of parliament. 53 of the 80 members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected by closed lists in a single constituency with an electoral threshold of 5 per cent of valid votes. There are 346 candidates, including one self-nominated candidate, vying for these mandates. Elections for another 27 members of the Chamber of Deputies will take place on Tuesday.
