Kagame, Rwanda’s de facto leader since 1994, faces just two opponents after courts banned his most prominent critics.
Rwandans have begun voting in the country’s presidential and legislative elections, which are expected to extend longtime leader Paul Kagame’s term in office for another five years.
Polling stations opened at around 7am local time (0500 GMT) on Monday across the East African country, where more than nine million people are registered to participate, Agence France-Presse reported.
Kagame, who has been Rwanda’s de facto leader for three decades, is almost certain to retain the presidency, facing just two challengers after Rwandan courts banished his most prominent critics.
The prospects reflect those of the last election in 2017, when Kagame dominated his rivals with close to 99 percent of the vote.
Who is facing Kagame?
Frank Habineza, leader of Rwanda’s Democratic Green Party, and independent Philippe Mpayimana were the only two candidates approved to run against Kagame out of eight candidates.
Rwandan courts have rejected appeals by prominent opposition figures Bernard Ntaganda and Victoire Ingabire to have previous convictions removed that effectively disqualified them from the race.
The National Electoral Commission also banned prominent Kagame critic Diane Rwigara, citing problems with her paperwork – the second time she has been barred from running.
Ahead of the elections, rights group Amnesty International said Rwanda’s opposition faces “severe restrictions… as well as threats, arbitrary detentions, prosecutions, trumped-up charges, murders and enforced disappearances.”
Kagame’s legacy
With 65 percent of the country’s population under 30, Kagame – who is running for a fourth term – is the only leader most Rwandans have ever known.
The 66-year-old is credited with rebuilding a nation traumatized after the genocide unleashed by Hutu fighters that killed nearly 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis but also centrist Hutus, in 1994.
But his regime is widely criticized by rights groups as autocratic, stifling the media and political opposition with arbitrary arrests, killings and enforced disappearances.
Abroad, he faces accusations of fueling instability in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, where a UN report says Rwandan troops are fighting alongside M23 rebels in the troubled east. Kigali denied the allegations.
Kagame also oversaw controversial constitutional changes that shortened presidential terms from seven to five years and reset the Rwandan leader’s clock, allowing him to potentially rule until 2034.
However, despite his many critics, Kagame enjoys widespread support domestically, having overseen economic growth rates averaging 7.2 percent between 2012 and 2022 and the development of infrastructure, including hospitals and roads.
“He achieved great achievements, he helped our children go to school, he increased the number of teachers, he also gave us health insurance,” Venantia Nyirangendo, 51, said during a rally of Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party in Saturday.
Parallel parliamentary elections
For the first time, parliamentary elections in Rwanda are taking place parallel to the presidential vote, with more than 500 candidates competing for 80 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
Of these, 53 are elected by universal suffrage. The RPF currently holds 40 seats and its allies 11, while Habineza’s Green Party has two deputies.
Another 24 places are reserved for women, two for young people and one for people with disabilities. All candidates for these seats must be independent and indirect elections will be held on Tuesday.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
