Rwandan opposition chief Victoire Ingabire has dismissed President Paul Kagame’s landslide electoral win, difficult the legitimacy of “an election the place no candidate can actually problem Kagame.”
Provisional outcomes declared on Monday evening by the Nationwide Electoral Fee (NEC) indicated that the veteran chief garnered 99.15 %, or 7,099,810 votes out of the 7,160,864 counted.
His rivals, Frank Habineza of the Democratic Inexperienced occasion obtained 38,301 votes, or 0.53 %, and unbiased candidate Philippe Mpayimana obtained 22,753 votes (0.32 %).
Ms Ingabire, a former convict, was denied a ticket to vie within the just-concluded election.
She mentioned the election was neither free nor honest and desires the President to open up the democratic house for Rwandans to have a say on how they’re ruled.
“An election the place no candidate can actually problem President Kagame diminishes the legitimacy of democracy in our nation,” Ms Ingabire mentioned. “Rwandans don’t have any selection to find out the chief they need as a result of the variety of people who find themselves allowed to take part within the elections is proscribed.”
In March 2024, the Excessive Courtroom in Rwanda declined Ingabire’s utility for rehabilitation, stopping her from “recovering her civic rights,” together with the fitting to journey overseas and to take part in any elections in Rwanda.
She then moved to the East African Courtroom of Justice (EACJ) to problem the choice.
In her utility, she requested interim measures to stop the “irreparable hurt that will be induced from precluding her from registering as a presidential candidate.”
The case is pending earlier than the regional court docket.
Learn: Rwanda presidential hopeful turns to EACJ to battle for civic rights
On Tuesday, whereas reacting to the President’s landslide victory, Ms Ingabire mentioned it will not have occurred if there was a degree playfield.
“The truth that President Kagame has received with over 99 % reveals that there was no competitors,” she mentioned.
Ingabire, a harsh critic of the Kagame administration, left Rwanda for the Netherlands in March 1994. There, she based a political occasion in 2006 and returned to Rwanda in January 2010, to take part within the presidential election scheduled later that 12 months.
She was arrested, tried and sentenced to fifteen years in jail on prices of inciting divisionism and conspiring towards the federal government.
She appealed earlier than the African Courtroom on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which in 2017 dominated that Rwanda had violated her rights to freedom of expression and a defence.
After serving eight years in jail, 5 of which have been spent in solitary confinement, she was launched on a presidential pardon in September 2018.
In her EACJ utility on April 30, 2024, she sought to be allowed to go to her ailing husband within the Netherlands and she or he hopes that she’s going to now be let overseas.
“Now that the elections, which I used to be not allowed to take part in are over, please let Kagame permit me to go to my household,” she mentioned.
In the meantime, President Kagame’s two rivals conceded defeat as he cruised to a fourth time period.
Talking on the Rwanda Patriotic Entrance (RPF) headquarters in Rusororo, Kigali, shortly after the announcement of the interim outcomes, the President informed his supporters: “You voted nicely!” and thanked the opposite events in coalition with the RPF, seven of which endorsed his candidature and re-election.
Learn: African leaders congratulate Rwanda’s Kagame on ballot win
Thanking his household, whom he known as “my strolling stick,” he added: “Let me significantly thanks all who voted for me, and the entire nation, the artistes and youth who have been with me all through, I can’t thanks sufficient. I’m grateful for the continued belief in me, manifested all through the campaigns and now within the election outcomes.”
“What was learn within the ballot outcomes — the place I’m main by a really large margin — these are usually not simply numbers, it’s that belief you could have in me, and that’s what actually issues,” the President mentioned.
“That is uncommon. That’s the reason many can’t fathom or perceive, therefore typically discrediting our outcomes, that is the individuality of RPF and Rwandans.”
He indicated that he would hit the bottom operating to proceed with the RPF growth agenda.
“The elections at the moment are behind us, what’s left is growing Rwanda.”
Polling was largely clean, as indicated by election observers and Kagame was broadly anticipated to win.
Many citizens throughout the nation went out on Monday, some clad in conventional apparel frequent in weddings, to solid their ballots for President and members of Parliament.
Some polling stations have been embellished like wedding ceremony venues, with others going the additional mile of putting conventional wedding ceremony supplies akin to calabashes and gourds to symbolise a standard wedding ceremony ceremony.
The earliest recorded arrival at a polling station for this election was 4 am, at Rugangazi in Nyanza district.
By 7 am, there have been queues throughout, and by midday a majority of the folks had solid their ballots.
In some locations akin to Musanze and Muhima in Kigali, voters have been supplied free espresso, tea and snacks.
The NEC deployed greater than 100,000 “volunteers,” at polling stations throughout the nation, guiding folks and serving to the aged and other people with disabilities to vote.
In a departure from the previous, the NEC allowed registered voters to vote at any polling station, versus solely the place they have been registered.
Voting ended at 3 pm and counting commenced instantly.
The outcomes from every polling station might be consolidated on the district degree after which transferred to the nationwide tallying centre.
Based on NEC chairperson Oda Gasinzigwa, vote tallying will proceed till July 20, with provisional outcomes for each presidential and parliamentary elections introduced on that day. The ultimate outcomes might be declared on July 27.
