Paul Kagame took the lead with 99.15% of the vote, according to partial results.

The referendum promised by Rwandan strongman President Paul Kagame was held on Monday, July 15. With 79 percent of the votes counted, he was set to win with 99.15 percent of the registered vote, according to partial results announced Monday evening by the electoral commission. It is certain to be a fourth term for the outgoing head of state, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since the end of the Tutsi genocide in 1994.

If this trend is confirmed, Paul Kagame could achieve a result higher than the 98.79% he received in the 2017 presidential election (after 95.05% in 2003 and 93.08% in 2010). Full preliminary results are expected on July 20, with final results announced on July 27.

Paul Kagame has already thanked Rwandans, in a speech from the headquarters of his party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF): “The results that have been presented indicate a very high degree. They are not just numbers, even if they are 100%, they are not just numbers. These numbers show confidence and that is what is most important.did you announce?

According to partial results read out on national television by electoral commission chairman Oda Gasinzigwa, his opponents, the leader of the sole legal opposition party Frank Habineza and independent Philippe Mbayimana, received 0.53% and 0.32% of the votes respectively.

muzzled opposition

Paul Kagame, 66, has been Rwanda's strongman since he was ousted in July 1994 by the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebellion, which incited the extremist Hutu government to commit genocide that left, according to the United Nations, more than 800,000 dead, most of them Tutsis, a minority.

First Vice President, Minister of Defence and de facto leader of the country, Paul Kagame has been president since 2000, elected by parliament after the resignation of Pasteur Bizimungu, and then three times by universal suffrage.

He is very popular for having lifted the country, which had not seen bloodshed after the genocide, with strong growth (7.2% on average between 2012 and 2022) accompanied by the development of infrastructure (roads, hospitals, etc.) and progress, particularly in the areas of education and health. However, nearly one in two Rwandans lives on less than $2.15 a day, according to the World Bank. Kagame’s regime is also criticized for its intervention in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, where several thousand soldiers are fighting alongside the M23 armed group according to a recent UN report, and its repression of dissident voices.

The most vehement opponents were unable to run in this presidential election. The historical figure of the opposition, Victoire Ingabire, saw the courts reject her request to restore her civil rights, which were stripped from her when she was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to fifteen years in prison for “minimizing genocide”She was released in 2018. The electoral commission disqualified another anti-Kagame voice, Diane Rwigara, for failing to comply with the documents. She had already been disqualified from the last presidential election, accused of falsifying documents and arrested, before being acquitted by the courts in 2018.

Amnesty International condemned in a statement “strict restrictions” And the rights of the opposition as well. “Threats, arbitrary arrests, fabricated charges, killings and enforced disappearances”.

Presidential elections with legislative elections

Even if the outcome is not ambiguous, Rwandans turned out in large numbers on Monday. “It was an easy choice, I voted for the person who brought development to this country: water, roads, electricity… I would not have voted for anyone else because the others brought nothing to Rwanda.”Boniface Niyonsaba, 29, explained without hiding his voice to Paul Kagame.

During the three weeks of the campaign, the RNFL machine flooded the country with pictures of its leader “PK”, its red, white and blue flags and its slogans. “PK24” (to “Paul Kagame 2024”) or “Igana Koigina” (” one hundred percent “His competitors were almost invisible.

The presidential election coincides with legislative elections, with 589 candidates running for 80 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Voters appoint 53 directly. The National Revolutionary Front currently holds 40 of the 53 seats and its allies 11. The Green Democratic Party of Habineza has two deputies in parliament. The other 27 seats are reserved by quota system for women, youth and people with disabilities. They will be awarded on Tuesday to candidates who are not running under any party banner: 24 women will be elected by members of municipal and regional councils, two young people by the National Youth Council, and one disabled person will be appointed by the Federation of Associations for the Disabled.