President Paul Kagame is on course to extend his 24-year rule in Rwanda by another five years in a landslide victory, as most of the votes counted from Monday’s election have indicated.
Kagame has secured 99.15% of the vote so far, and with about 79% of ballots counted, the partial results were announced by the electoral commission show.
The results so far show that his two opponents are sharing less than 1% of the total vote.
The President’s opponents – environmentalist Frank Habineza an ex-journalist and government adviser, Philippe Mpayimana – had clinched merely 0.53% and 0.32% of the votes respectively.
While the full provisional results won’t be announced until 20 July and 27 July, the present results revealed are not surprising as it imitates the 2017 election’s outcome that had the same candidates taking part. Kagame had won with 98.8% of the vote that year.
For the 2024 elections, the electoral commission announced that 98% of the more than 9.5 million eligible voters had exercised their franchise to vote for a president and 53 legislators.
Since 1994, Kagame has been the de-facto leader of Rwanda after the end of the genocide. He became the democratically elected president in 2000.
What They’re Saying
Kagame had at this development, expressed thanks to the Rwandans for their trust in an address at his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party headquarters.
“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,” the President had said.
