Rwandan President Paul Kagame, feared and admired in equal measure, is seeking to prolong 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, with more than 90% of the vote. In 2017, he won with an impressive 99%.
Kagame, 66, faces the only two candidates authorized to run – other candidates have been barred by the state electoral commission.
President Kagame has been at the forefront of Rwandan politics since his rebel forces seized power at the end of the 1994 genocide, which killed some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Since then, he has been praised for overseeing the country’s dramatic revival and unifying the country.
“Thirty years ago Rwanda was essentially written off – but thanks, to some extent, to the leadership of Kagame and his ruling party, Rwanda has managed to build some stability,” Dr Felix Ndahinda, a scholar of the South African region, told the BBC. Great Lakes.
But his critics accused Kagame of not allowing any opposition – to the point of orchestrating cross-border killings of dissidents.
Kagame has always fiercely defended Rwanda’s human rights record, saying his country respects political freedoms.
But one analyst told the BBC the election was a mere “formality”.
Around nine million people are registered to vote, according to the electoral body, and at least two million are voting for the first time.
A provisional winner is expected to be known on Tuesday morning.
Voters will elect the president and 53 members of the Lower House of Parliament on Monday, while another 27 deputies will be elected the following day.
“I’m very excited to vote for the first time, I can’t wait,” Sylvia Mutoni told the BBC.
For most young people in Rwanda, Mr Kagame is the only leader they have ever known.
Even when he was vice president and minister of Defense, from 1994 to 2000, he was the country’s true leader and has been president since 2000.
The two opposition candidates – Frank Habineza of the Green Democratic Party and independent Philippe Mpayimana – ran in the 2017 elections, where they obtained less than 1% of the vote between them.
But they are not intimidated.
“I believe 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, for freedom of the media”, he said.
And some Rwandans are listening. One voter told the BBC he would not vote for the incumbent president.
Celestin Mutuyeyezu, 28, used to support Kagame, but this election was influenced by Habineza.
“He said great things about fighting unemployment and it stuck with me,” he said.
But defeating President Kagame may be difficult.
Diane Rwigara, an outspoken critic of the president, was barred from running in the elections. She was also disqualified in 2017.
“Rwanda is portrayed as a country where the economy has grown. But on the ground it is different. People lack the basics of life, food, water, shelter,” she told the BBC.
The electoral commission said she did not provide the correct documentation.
Although the country continues to struggle with high rates of youth unemployment, it is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa.
Kagame is credited with Rwanda’s remarkable economic transformation and stability over the past three decades.
Rwanda is known worldwide for its clean capital and for having the world’s highest proportion of female parliamentarians, 61%.
In the book Rwanda, Inc., American authors Patricia Crisafulli and Andrea Redmond describe Kagame more as a company CEO than a political leader due to “his drive for excellence” in all sectors of the country.
He is also a shrewd politician.
Despite frequently criticizing the West, he tries to cultivate useful allies – for example, working with the United Kingdom on its now-abandoned scheme to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Rwanda has also exercised its soft power on the international stage, building its appeal through sport, culture and entertainment.
The small East African country is headquarters of the African Basketball League, which is a partnership with the NBA. Hosted the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and international stars such as Kendrick Lamar performed there.
But Kagame’s diplomacy also has a very tough side.
The election comes days after a UN report stated that there was around 4,000 Rwandan soldiers in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congowhere they are accused of supporting the M23 rebel group.
Rwanda did not deny the allegation and told the BBC that DR Congo’s government lacked the political will to resolve the crisis in its mineral-rich east, which has seen decades of unrest.
During the campaign, Kagame promised to protect Rwanda from “external aggression” amid tensions with neighboring DR Congo and Burundi.
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