2024-07-17 03:16:05
No one doubts the results of the election, because Mr. Kagame has ruled this small African country with an iron fist as the de facto leader and president for three decades.
Partial results released by the Electoral Commission seven hours after voting closed showed Kagame with 99.15 percent of the vote. votes, i.e. even more than 98.79 percent. votes he received in the last election seven years ago.
Democratic Green Party candidate Frank Habineza got just 0.53 percent, while independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana got 0.32 percent. votes, according to the results published after counting 79 percent. bulletins.
Speaking from the headquarters of his ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), Mr Kagame, 66, thanked Rwandans for giving him another five years in power.
“The results presented show a very high rating, it’s not just numbers, even if it was 100 percent, it’s not just numbers,” he said.
“These numbers show confidence, which is the most important thing,” he added. “I hope we can solve all the problems together.”
“Safe and transparent”
65 percent Rwandans are under the age of 30, making Kagame the only leader most of them have ever seen.
The bespectacled 66-year-old is credited with helping rebuild the traumatized state after the 1994 genocide, but he is also accused of creating a climate of fear at home and fomenting instability in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
More than nine million Rwandans were registered to vote, including two million first-time voters, and for the first time presidential elections were held alongside legislative elections.
All preliminary results must be announced by July 20, and final results by July 27.
“Overall, the electoral process was conducted safely and transparently for Rwandans abroad and at home,” the National Electoral Commission said.
Mr. Kagame won with more than 93 percent. votes in 2003, 2010 and in 2017, when he easily beat the same two competitors.
He oversaw controversial constitutional amendments that shortened the president’s term from seven to five years but reset the timer for Rwanda’s leader, potentially allowing him to rule until 2034.
“Strict Restrictions”
Rwandan courts have rejected appeals by prominent opposition figures Bernardo Ntaganda and Victoire Ingabire to overturn previous convictions that disqualified them from running in elections.
Diane Rwigara, a prominent critic of Mr. Kagame, was also barred from the election by the Electoral Commission, citing sloppy documents, the second time she has been barred from the polls.
In the run-up to the elections, Amnesty International said Rwanda’s political opposition faced “severe restrictions… as well as threats, arbitrary detention, persecution, trumped-up charges, killings and enforced disappearances”.
During the three-week election campaign, with the RPF’s well-oiled public relations machine in high gear, the imbalance of candidates was evident. Although the competitors also tried to be heard, some of their events were attended by only 100 people.
The fighters of R. Kagame’s RPF are praised for ending the genocide in 1994 by expelling Hutu extremists who killed representatives of the Tutsi minority for 100 days.
The criminals then killed about 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, but also moderate Hutus.
From 2012 to 2022, Rwanda’s GDP grew by an average of 7.2 percent. per year, although the World Bank says almost half of the population lives on less than US$2.15 a day.
2024-07-17 03:16:05