As widely expected, the outgoing head of state, Paul Kagame, who has been in office since 2000, won Rwanda’s presidential election on 15 July. According to the partial results, with 79 percent of the ballots counted, he received 99.15 percent of the votes.
The figure is even higher than the 98.79 percent obtained in the 2017 presidential election, after 95.05 percent in 2003 and 93.08 percent in 2010.
Kagame, 66, has ruled the country de facto since July 1994, when as the leader of a rebel movement he overthrew the Hutu extremist government responsible for the genocide that the United Nations says caused about 800 a thousand victims of moderate Tutsis and Hutus.
After the results were announced, Kagame thanked the voters. “The very high figure shows how much you trust me, and that’s the most important thing.”
The other two candidates, Frank Habineza, leader of the only authorized opposition party, and independent Philippe Mpayimana, received 0.53 and 0.32 percent of the votes respectively.
Nine million voters were called to the polls for the presidential and legislative elections, which were held for the first time at the same time. The results of the legislative elections are not yet known, but Kagame’s Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) is the favorite.
Kagame’s two main opponents were not authorized to participate in the presidential elections.
Victoire Ingabire, a historic opposition figure, was unable to run because the justice system rejected her request to restore her civil rights, which she was stripped of in 2013 after a fifteen-year prison sentence for “minimizing the genocide”. Ingabire was then released in 2018.
The Electoral Commission also rejected the candidacy of opponent Diane Rwigara, claiming she did not have the documents in order.