Rwanda's President Paul Kagame at APE Rugunga School in Kigali where he cast his vote on August 4, 2017. PHOTO | PPU
Rwandan election officials tallied votes on Friday from a
presidential poll expected to hand President Paul Kagame a massive
victory and third term.
"Kagame, Paul. Kagame, Paul,"
read out election officials from the vast majority of ballots at one
polling station as counting began after a peaceful day of voting across
the country.
The electoral commission's Charles
Munyaneza said the process had seen "no major problems" and turnout had
been good among the 6.9 million registered voters taking part in the
third election since the end of the 1994 genocide.
Kagame,
59, is running against two little-known candidates seen as unlikely to
pose any threat to his Rwandan Patriotic Front's (RPF) control.
The
lanky former guerrilla fighter cast his ballot at a school in the
capital just after midday, accompanied by his wife and four children as
loudspeakers blared music urging citizens to vote.
Voters
at the school praised Kagame for his leadership since his rebel army
routed extremist Hutu forces who slaughtered an estimated 800,000 people
— mainly minority Tutsis — and seized Kigali.
"He
freed the country, he stabilised the country. Now we can walk anywhere
day or night without problems," said Jean Baptiste Rutayisire, a
54-year-old entrepreneur.
"He is an exceptional man. You don't change a winning team."
Like
many other voters AFP spoke to, Rutayisire didn't know the names of the
other candidates, Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party — the
only permitted critical opposition party — and independent candidate
Philippe Mpayimana.
Despite facing an unwinnable battle
against Kagame in which opponents had only three weeks to campaign,
Habineza was upbeat after voting.
"For the first time
since 23 years an opposition party has been in the ballot," he told AFP
by phone. Previously only independents and parties allied with Kagame
fielded candidates.
Habineza
complained that 100 of his 500 observers had not been allowed to enter
polling stations for the first two hours of voting.
Munyaneza said there had been an issue with their accreditation "but we allowed them in anyway."
Visionary or despot?
Kagame was just 36 when he became Rwanda's de-facto leader after the genocide.
He
was appointed president by lawmakers in 2000 before being elected in
2003 and again in 2010 with more than 90 per cent of votes.
His
close friend former British prime minister Tony Blair hails him as a
"visionary leader" while others see him as a shining example of
post-colonial leadership in Africa.
Kagame is credited
with a remarkable turnaround in the shattered nation, which boasts
annual economic growth of about seven per cent, is safe, clean and does
not tolerate corruption. Rwanda also has the highest number of female
lawmakers in the world.
However, critics increasingly
bemoan what they see as despotic tendencies. Rights groups accuse Kagame
of ruling through fear, relying on systematic repression of the
opposition, free speech and the media.
Coronation?
Kagame's critics have ended up jailed, forced into exile or assassinated. Few Rwandans would dare to openly speak against him.
"There
is no election in Rwanda, there is a coronation declaring Kagame the
king," outspoken local journalist Robert Mugabe told AFP before the
vote.
Even Kagame has said the result is a foregone conclusion.
"The election is over," he declared on the first day of the campaign.
His
confidence comes after 98 per cent of Rwandans approved a
constitutional amendment in a 2015 referendum that granted him the right
to run for a third term in office.
Observers condemned
the reform, which could potentially see Kagame retain office twice more
if re-elected this time and allow him to stay president until 2034.
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