Rwanda election: Paul Kagame seeks fourth time period as president

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, feared and admired in equal measure, is searching for to increase his 24-year rule in an election analysts say he’ll win by a landslide.

He has dominated each election since changing into president in 2000, with over 90% of the vote. In 2017 he gained with a staggering 99% in an election criticised by human rights teams.

Mr Kagame, 66, is accused of not permitting any actual opposition and ruthlessly concentrating on his critics, even exterior the nation.

He faces the one two contenders who have been authorised to run – different candidates have been barred by the state-run electoral fee.

Mr Kagame solid his vote with out talking to reporters.

He has been the actual pressure in Rwanda since his insurgent forces took energy on the finish of the 1994 genocide which killed some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and reasonable Hutus.

Since then, he has been praised for overseeing the nation’s dramatic financial revival and unifying the nation.

“Rwanda was 30 years in the past basically written off – however due to some extent to the management beneath Kagame and his ruling celebration, Rwanda managed to construct some stability,” Dr Felix Ndahinda, a scholar on the Nice Lakes area, informed the BBC.

Mr Kagame has at all times fiercely defended Rwanda’s report on human rights, saying his nation respects political freedoms.

However one analyst informed the BBC the election was a mere “formality”.

About 9 million individuals are registered to vote, in keeping with the electoral physique, and no less than two million are first-time voters.

Counting has already begun at polling stations and provisional outcomes is perhaps introduced by Tuesday morning.

Voters are electing the president and 53 members of the decrease Home of Parliament on Monday, whereas 27 different MPs might be chosen on Tuesday.

“I’m very enthusiastic about voting for my first time, I can’t wait,” Sylvia Mutoni informed the BBC.

For many younger individuals in Rwanda, Mr Kagame is the one chief they’ve ever identified.

Even whereas vice-president and defence minister from 1994 to 2000 he was the nation’s actual chief, and has been president since 2000.

The 2 opposition candidates – Frank Habineza, of the Democratic Inexperienced Social gathering and impartial Philippe Mpayimana – each ran within the 2017 election, the place they took simply over 1% of the vote between them.

Mr Habineza solid his vote within the capital, Kigali, on Monday morning and stated he hoped his celebration can get 20 MPs – 10 occasions the variety of seats his celebration secured in 2017.

Earlier than the election, he informed the BBC Concentrate on Africa podcast: “I imagine democracy is a course of.

“Folks nonetheless have a worry of expressing their opinions. I am preventing for freedom of speech, freedom of the media,” he stated.

And a few Rwandans are listening to him. One voter informed the BBC he wouldn’t be voting for the incumbent president.

Celestin Mutuyeyezu, 28, used to help Mr Kagame, however this election has been swayed by Mr Habineza.

“He stated nice issues on preventing unemployment, and he’s obtained me,” he stated.

However defeating President Kagame could show tough.

Diane Rwigara, an outspoken critic of the president, was barred from working within the election. She was additionally disqualified in 2017.

“Rwanda is portrayed as a rustic the place the financial system has been rising. However on the bottom, it is completely different. Folks do lack the fundamentals of life, meals, water, shelter,” she informed the BBC.

The electoral fee stated she had failed to offer appropriate documentation.

Although the nation continues to battle with excessive charges of youth unemployment, it is without doubt one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa.

Mr Kagame is credited for Rwanda’s outstanding financial transformation and stability during the last three many years.

Rwanda is thought globally for its clear capital metropolis and having the world’s highest proportion of feminine MPs, 61%.

Within the guide Rwanda, Inc. American authors Patricia Crisafulli and Andrea Redmond describe Mr Kagame extra as an organization CEO than a political chief due to “his drive for excellence” in each sector within the nation.

He’s additionally a shrewd politician.

Regardless of usually criticising the West, he tries to domesticate helpful allies – for instance by working with the UK on its now-abandoned scheme to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Rwanda has additionally been flexing its gentle energy on the worldwide stage, by constructing its enchantment by sports activities, tradition, and leisure.

However Mr Kagame’s diplomacy additionally has a really robust facet.

Rwanda didn’t deny the allegation and informed the BBC the DR Congo authorities lacked the political will to resolve the disaster in its mineral-rich east, which has witnessed many years of unrest.

On the marketing campaign path Mr Kagame promised to guard Rwanda from “exterior aggression” amid tensions with neighbouring DR Congo and Burundi.