Kagame Wins Fourth Term As President

President Paul Kagame has secured 99% of the vote in the preliminary results of Rwanda‘s presidential election held on Monday, as announced by electoral authorities. This was an expected outcome as the long-standing leader of the country seeks to prolong his three-decade hold on power.

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In the provisional results, Kagame’s opponents – Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana – collectively garnered less than 1% of the vote, based on 79% of all ballots cast. This result echoes the outcome of the 2017 election, where Kagame received nearly 99% of the vote.

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The final results are anticipated to be disclosed by July 27, with a possibility of an earlier announcement. At 66 years old, Kagame, who has been in power since the aftermath of the country’s genocide in 1994, faced minimal opposition in this election, with two prominent critics prevented from running for top positions.

During the election, long queues were observed at some polling stations in Kigali, the capital city. Election authorities reported that 9.5 million Rwandans were registered to vote out of the country’s population of 14 million.

Expressing his support, passenger motorcyclist Jean Claude Nkurunziza stated, “This is going to be my first time to vote. I am voting for President Kagame because I have never seen a leader like him before.”

Report say, several candidates were disqualified from the presidential elections which took place on monday July 15.

Since Paul Kagame assumed office in 2000, three journalists have been killed, two have gone missing, and more than thirty media outlets have been shut down, as reported by RSF. The situation has become so critical that many of the country’s remaining media professionals have either fled into exile or are compelled to practice self-censorship.

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Kagame has been at the helm of the East African nation since he seized power as the leader of rebels who overthrew the government and put an end to the genocide in 1994. He served as vice president and de facto leader from 1994 until 2000, when he assumed the presidency.