Application for fourth term
Election in Rwanda – Kagame seeks re-election
Voters queue up in front of the polling station in Rwanda. Incumbent Kagame is seeking re-election. Photo
© Brian Inganga/AP
Voters in the “land of a thousand hills” will decide on the president and parliament. No surprises are expected in the election in Rwanda.
More than nine million voters – including two million first-time voters – have cast their Rwanda voted on a new president and on the composition of parliament. The official election result is expected on July 27. Preliminary results could be announced as early as the middle of the week. Long queues formed in front of many polling stations on Monday.
No surprises are expected: the likely winner of the election is incumbent Paul Kagame, who is running for a fourth term.
Kagame did have two opponents, the chairman of the Green Party, Frank Habineza, and the independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana. In the previous elections, Kagame had received more than 90 percent of the votes in each case. Two opposition politicians were not even allowed to run as candidates. Human rights organizations criticize the persecution of opposition members in the East African country with a population of around 14 million.
Kagame’s party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), is also expected to emerge as the strongest party in the upcoming parliamentary elections. 670 candidates are running for the 80 seats in parliament. A special feature of Rwanda is that, according to the regulations, female MPs make up a majority in parliament.
Kagame has been the country’s president since 2000, but has actually been Rwanda’s strongman since 1994. At that time, he invaded Rwanda from Ugandan exile as the leader of the RPF and ended the genocide of the Tutsi by the Hutu militias. He then served as defense minister and vice president.