Rwanda: Kagame wins presidential elections with 99% of the vote
Paul Kagame, Rwanda's 66-year-old president, has won the country's presidential elections with 99% of the vote, according to preliminary results - with 79% of the votes cast - released on Monday evening by the country's electoral body.
Kagame has been in power in Rwanda since the end of the genocide in 1994, holding various positions. He was first elected president in 2000 and won by a similar margin in 2017.
During his manifesto, Kagame stated that his priorities of building and growing the country towards prosperity would not change.
In this election, Kagame faced two other candidates: Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party and Philippe Mpayimana, an independent candidate. Habineza finished second with 0.53% of the vote, while Mpayimana got 0.32%.
This was the second run for the top job for Mpayimana, a journalist turned politician whose manifesto initiatives to develop agriculture, transport, fishing and other industries have received coverage in more than 50 articles.
Several other candidates, including some of Kagame's most vehement critics, were barred from running for president.
Around 9 million out of a population of 14 million Rwandans were registered to vote - 2 million more than in the last election, according to the National Electoral Commission (CNE).
The president of the CNE, Oda Gasinzigwa, reported that more than 300 international observers were present in Rwanda, along with around 700 local observers.
Critics say that one of the reasons Kagame achieved victory is his heavy-handed rule, stifling dissent.
However, analysts also highlight his ability to guide the country towards internal peace since the 1994 genocide, when around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.
