President Paul Kagame has won 99% of the vote in provisional results from Monday’s presidential election in Rwanda, electoral authorities said, an outcome that was widely expected as the country’s long-time ruler aims to extend his three-decade grip on power.
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 in provisional results accounting for 79% of all ballots cast.
The result mirrors the 2017 election, where Kagame also secured nearly 99% of the vote. Final results are expected by July 27, although they could be announced sooner.
Kagame, 66, who has held power since the end of the country’s genocide in 1994, ran virtually unopposed. Two of his stronger critics were blocked from running for high office.
There were long lines at some polling stations in the capital, Kigali. Election authorities said 9.5 million Rwandans were registered to vote in the country’s population of 14 million.
Kagame has led the East African country since he seized power as the head of rebels who took control of the government and ended the genocide in 1994. He served as vice president and de facto leader from 1994 to 2000, when he became president.
He has been condemned by many as an authoritarian but praised by others for presiding over impressive growth in the three decades since the genocide. In 2015, Rwandans voted in a referendum to lift a two-term limit, allowing Kagame to potentially remain in power until 2034.
On Saturday, he told journalists that his mandate comes from the people. “The ruling party and Rwandans have been asking me to stand for another mandate,” he said. ”At a personal level, I can comfortably go home and rest.”
Rwanda’s election took place amid heightened fears of insecurity in Africa’s Great Lakes region. Rebels known as M23 are fighting Congolese forces in a remote area of neighboring eastern Congo.
Between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan forces are fighting alongside M23, United Nations experts said in a report circulated last week. The U.S. government has described the group as being backed by Rwanda. Rwanda accuses Congo’s military of recruiting fighters who were among the perpetrators of the genocide.
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