Kagame wins Rwanda presidential election with 99% of votes

No real elections were expected – and so the first partial results of Rwanda's presidential election are in. Governor Kagame was re-elected with more than 99 percent.

Long-time incumbent Paul Kagame has been re-elected with 99.15 percent of the vote in Rwanda’s presidential election, according to partial results. The National Electoral Commission announced the result after 79 percent of the votes had been counted. Kagame should therefore be assured of a fourth term in office.

There is hardly any competition for long-term governors.

The line-up of presidential candidates was a repeat of the last election in 2017, which Kagame won with 98.79 percent of the vote: in addition to the 66-year-old Kagame, who has led Rwanda in various capacities for more than three years, there were also the leader of the Rwandan Democratic Green Party, Frank Habineza, and the independent candidate, Philippe Mbayimana. They were the only opposition candidates accepted.

Habineza received 0.53 percent of the vote, compared to 0.32 percent for Mbayimana, electoral commission chairman Oda Gasinzigwa announced on television.

Nationwide, more than nine million eligible voters have been invited to cast their ballots at more than 2,400 polling stations. Final results will then be announced on July 27.

controversial Constitutional Amendment

For the first time, a new parliament was elected in parallel with the presidential election. Kagame’s party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, has dominated parliament for decades. Sixty-five percent of Rwanda’s population is under 30, so the majority of the population knows no other strongman in the country than the 66-year-old.

Officially, Kagame has been Rwanda’s president since 2000, but before that he held political power in the country as vice president and defense minister. In theory, a controversial constitutional change in 2015 allows Kagame to remain in office until 2034.