Rwanda Elections: Paul Kagame to Run for Fourth Term as President

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, both feared and admired, is seeking to extend his 24-year rule in an election that analysts say he will win by a landslide.

He has dominated every election since becoming president in 2000, winning more than 90% of the vote. In 2017, he won an astonishing 99%.

Mr Kagame, 66, is facing the only two candidates allowed to stand, with the state-run electoral commission blocking the others.

President Kagame has been in charge of Rwanda’s politics since his rebel forces seized power at the end of the 1994 genocide that killed some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Since then, he has been praised for overseeing the country’s dramatic renaissance and unification.

“Rwanda was taken off the list 30 years ago, but thanks to the leadership under Kagame and his ruling party, Rwanda has been able to build some stability,” Dr Felix Ndahinda, a researcher on the Great Lakes region, told the BBC.

But his critics have accused Mr Kagame of tolerating no dissent — even organising cross-border assassinations of opponents.

Mr. Kagame has always strongly defended Rwanda’s human rights record, saying his country respects political freedoms.

But one analyst told the BBC the election was just a “formality”.

About nine million people are registered to vote, according to the electoral commission, including at least two million first-time voters.

The provisional winner is expected to be known by Tuesday morning.

Voters are scheduled to elect a president and 53 members of the House of Representatives on Monday, while 27 more members will be elected the following day.

“I’m so excited to vote for the first time, I can’t wait,” Silvia Mutoni told the BBC.

For most young Rwandans, Mr. Kagame is the only leader they have ever known.

Even when he was vice president and defense minister from 1994 to 2000, he was the real leader of the country, and has been president since 2000.

Opposition candidates Frank Habineza of the Green Democratic Party and independent Philippe Mbayimana ran in the 2017 election, receiving less than 1% of the vote between them.

“I think democracy is a process,” Habineza told the BBC’s Focus on Africa podcast.

“People are still afraid to express their opinions. I am fighting for freedom of expression and freedom of the media,” he said.

Some Rwandans are listening. One voter told the BBC he would not vote for the incumbent president.

Celestine Mutoyoyo, 28, had supported Mr Kagame, but this election was affected by Mr Habineza’s victory.

“He said great things about fighting unemployment, and I got what I wanted,” he said.

But defeating President Kagame may be difficult.

Diane Rwigara, an outspoken critic of the president, was barred from running in the election. She was also disqualified in 2017.

“Rwanda is portrayed as a country with a growing economy. But on the ground, it’s different. People lack the basics of life, food, water, shelter,” she told the BBC.

The electoral commission said she failed to provide the correct documents.

Although the country still suffers from high youth unemployment, it is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa.

Mr. Kagame is credited with Rwanda’s remarkable economic transformation and stability over the past three decades.

Rwanda is world-famous for its clean capital and for having the highest percentage of female parliamentarians in the world, at 61%.

In their book, “Rwanda Limited,” American authors Patricia Crisafulli and Andrea Redmond describe Mr. Kagame as more of a corporate CEO than a political leader because of his “pursuit of excellence” in every sector of the country.

He is also a skilled politician.

Despite his frequent criticism of the West, he is trying to cultivate useful allies – for example by working with the UK on its now-abandoned plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Rwanda is also working to project its soft power on the international stage, by building its appeal through sports, culture and entertainment.

But Mr. Kagame’s diplomacy has a very difficult side as well.

Rwanda has not denied the accusation, telling the BBC that the DRC government lacks the political will to resolve the crisis in the mineral-rich east of the country, which has seen decades of unrest.

In his election campaign, Kagame promised to protect Rwanda from “external aggression” amid tensions with neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.