Kagame seeks fourth term as Rwandan president
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, feared and admired in equal measure, is seeking to extend his 24-year rule in an election analysts say he will win by a landslide.
He has dominated every election since becoming president in 2000, with over 90% of the vote. In 2017 he won with a staggering 99% in an election criticised by human rights groups.
Mr Kagame, 66, is accused of not allowing any real opposition and ruthlessly targeting his critics, even outside the country.
He faces the only two contenders who were authorised to run – other candidates were barred by the state-run electoral commission.
Mr Kagame cast his vote without speaking to reporters.
He has been the real force in Rwanda since his rebel forces took power at the end of the 1994 genocide which killed some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Since then, he has been praised for overseeing the country’s dramatic economic revival and unifying the country.
“Rwanda was 30 years ago essentially written off – but thanks to some extent to the leadership under Kagame and his ruling party, Rwanda managed to build some stability,” Dr Felix Ndahinda, a scholar on the Great Lakes region, told the BBC.
Mr Kagame has always fiercely defended Rwanda’s record on human rights, saying his country respects political freedoms.
But one analyst told the BBC the election was a mere “formality”.
About nine million people are registered to vote, according to the electoral body, and at least two million are first-time voters. —BBC
