By Frank Kamuntu
Rwandan President Paul Kagame has won the country’s presidential election with 99% of the vote, according to preliminary election results released late Monday evening.
Kagame had won 99% of the 79% of ballots counted so far, the country’s electoral body said.
The president, who has been in power in various roles since 1994, won by a similar amount in 2017.
People stood in line patiently starting at 7 a.m. local time Monday to cast their ballots, saying they were excited to exercise their civic duty. Some told VOA they wanted a leader who could deliver what the population desired. Others said they’d seen progress and would vote for that to continue.
Kagame cast his vote around 1:30 p.m. at a voting center in Kigali. He had said that his priorities of building the country toward prosperity would not change.
Kagame, who was first elected president in 2000, faced two other candidates: the Democratic Green Party’s Frank Habineza and independent Philippe Mpayimana.
Habineza was in second place with 0.53% of the vote while Mpayimana had 0.32%.
This was the second bid for the top job by Mpayimana, a journalist-turned-politician whose manifesto initiatives to develop agriculture, transportation, fishing and other industries received coverage in 50-plus articles.
Habineza, who also ran against Kagame in the last election, told VOA he was in the race again this year because the incumbent has been in office too long and it was time for a new vision for the country.
Several other candidates, including some of Kagame’s most vocal critics, were barred from running for president.
About 9 million out of a population of 14 million Rwandans were registered to vote. That was 2 million more than last time, according to the National Electoral Commission.
NEC Chairwoman Oda Gasinzigwa said that more than 300 international observers were present in Rwanda, along with about 700 local observers.
One reason Kagame, 66, cruised to victory, critics said, was that he has governed with a heavy hand and has stifled dissent. But another reason, analysts said, was his ability to guide the East African country toward internal peace since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.
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