President Paul Kagame has won 99% of the vote in provisional results from Monday’s presidential election in Rwanda, electoral authorities said, an outcome that was widely expected as the country’s long-time ruler aims to extend this three-decade grip on power.
Kagame’s opponents — Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana — were collectively getting under one percent of the vote in provisional results.
The result mirrored the outcome in 2017, when Kagame took nearly 99% of the vote.
Final results are expected by 27 July, although they could be announced sooner.
The 66-year-old Kagame, who has held power since the end of the country’s genocide in 1994, was running virtually unopposed. Two of his stronger critics were blocked from running for high office.
Thirty years of reconstruction
This election was really "about how far Rwanda has come since the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi," Phil Clark, a professor of international politics at SOAS University of London, told RFI English's podcast 'Spotlight on Africa'.
"If you look at the way that Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the ruling party, have been campaigning for this election, it's very much been on their record in helping to rebuild the country after the genocide."
During the campaign, the party talked about the country's economic growth and development, the peace and stability that Rwanda has experienced since the genocide as well as issues of of reconciliation and social cohesion.
"They're seeing it very much as an election on Kagame's record in terms of rebuilding the country after the genocide," Clark said. "That's a message that's been pushed by the ruling party."
"Yet, there are two big parts to the Rwandan story," he added. "The first one is a story of amazing recovery since the genocide, particularly in economic and social terms, and at a country that is now very peaceful and stable."
But the other dimension of Rwanda is that this is still a very repressive state.
"This is still a very controlling government. And you can see that even in this election, several potential presidential candidates have been excluded from the vote," he said.
Only two candidates were approved by the state-run electoral commission to run against him.
The candidacies of others, including Kagame's most vocal critics like Victoire Ingabire, were invalidated for various reasons, including prior criminal convictions.
There was "absolutely no question at all that Kagame and the RPF would win", Clark said, "because the election has been controlled in such a way as to guarantee that outcome."
Engulfed in the DRC's conflict
Currently, the most significant challenge for Rwanda is the situation in eastern Congo (DRC). This issue is a major concern not only for the broader region but also for all of Rwanda's international partners.
"The conflict in eastern Congo is on a knife's edge," Clark adds, "with many observers predicting that we could see a regional war in the coming months if the situation is not de-escalated."
Once this election is out of the way, the big question is whether regional partners can find a peaceful way from the brink of something that could be truly horrific."
The greatest challenge that Kagame will face after this election is whether he can be part of a peaceful mediation to try to finally bring some peace and stability to eastern DRC.
