Rwanda\u2019s President Paul Kagame, feared and admired in equal measure, is seeking to extend his 24-year rule in an election analysts say he will win by a landslide.<\/p>\n
He has dominated every election since becoming president in 2000, with over 90% of the vote. In 2017 he won with a staggering 99%.<\/p>\n
Mr Kagame, 66, faces off against the only two contenders who were authorised to run \u2013 other candidates were barred by the state-run electoral commission.<\/p>\n
President Kagame has been at the helm of Rwandan politics since his rebel forces took power at the end of the 1994 genocide which killed some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.<\/p>\n
Since then, he has been praised for overseeing the country\u2019s dramatic revival and unifying the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cRwanda was 30 years ago essentially written off \u2013 but thanks to some extent to the leadership under Kagame and his ruling party Rwanda managed to build some stability,\u201d Dr Felix Ndahinda, a scholar on the Great Lakes region, told the BBC.<\/p>\n
But his critics have accused Mr Kagame of not allowing any opposition \u2013 to the extent of orchestrating cross-border assassinations of dissidents.<\/p>\n
Mr Kagame has always fiercely defended Rwanda\u2019s record on human rights, saying his country respects political freedoms.<\/p>\n
But one analyst told the BBC the election was a mere \u201cformality\u201d.<\/p>\n
About nine million people are registered to vote, according to the electoral body, and at least two million are first-time voters.<\/p>\n
A provisional winner should be known by Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
Voters will elect the president and 53 members of the lower House of Parliament on Monday, while 27 other MPs will be elected the following day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very excited about voting for my first time, I can\u2019t wait,\u201d Sylvia Mutoni told the BBC.<\/p>\n
For most young people in Rwanda, Mr Kagame is the only leader they have ever known.<\/p>\n
Even while vice-president and defence minister from 1994 to 2000 he was the country\u2019s real leader, and has been president since 2000.<\/p>\n
The two opposition candidates \u2013 Frank Habineza, of the Democratic Green Party and independent Philippe Mpayimana \u2013 both ran in the 2017 election, where they took just over 1% of the vote between them.<\/p>\n
But they are undeterred.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe democracy is a process,\u201d Mr Habineza told the BBC Focus on Africa podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople still have a fear of expressing their opinions. I\u2019m fighting for freedom of speech, freedom of the media,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And some Rwandans are listening to him. One voter told the BBC he would not be voting for the incumbent president.<\/p>\n
Celestin Mutuyeyezu, 28, used to support Mr Kagame, but this election has been swayed by Mr Habineza.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said great things on fighting unemployment, and he\u2019s got me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But defeating President Kagame may prove difficult.<\/p>\n
Diane Rwigara, an outspoken critic of the president, was barred from running in the election. She was also disqualified in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cRwanda is portrayed as a country where the economy has been growing. But on the ground, it\u2019s different. People do lack the basics of life, food, water, shelter,\u201d she told the BBC.<\/p>\n
The electoral commission said she had failed to provide correct documentation.<\/p>\n
Though the country continues to struggle with high rates of youth unemployment, it is one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa.<\/p>\n
Mr Kagame is credited for Rwanda\u2019s remarkable economic transformation and stability over the last three decades.<\/p>\n
Rwanda is known globally for its clean capital city and having the world\u2019s highest proportion of female MPs, 61%.<\/p>\n
In the book Rwanda, Inc. American authors Patricia Crisafulli and Andrea Redmond describe Mr Kagame more as a company CEO than a political leader because of \u201chis drive for excellence\u201d in every sector in the country.<\/p>\n
He is also a shrewd politician.<\/p>\n
Despite often criticising the West, he tries to cultivate useful allies \u2013 for example by working with the UK on its now-abandoned scheme to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.<\/p>\n
Rwanda has also been flexing its soft power on the international stage, by building its appeal through sports, culture, and entertainment.<\/p>\n
The small East African country is\u00a0home to the African Basketball League, which is a partnership with the NBA. It hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2022 and international stars like\u00a0Kendrick Lamar have played concerts there.<\/p>\n
But Mr Kagame\u2019s diplomacy also has a very tough side.<\/p>\n
The election comes days after a UN report said there were\u00a0some 4,000 Rwandan troops in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, where they are accused of backing the M23 rebel group.<\/p>\n
Rwanda did not deny the allegation and told the BBC the DR Congo government lacked the political will to resolve the crisis in its mineral-rich east, which has witnessed decades of unrest.<\/p>\n
On the campaign trail Mr Kagame promised to protect Rwanda from \u201cexternal aggression\u201d amid tensions with neighbouring DR Congo and Burundi.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rwanda\u2019s President Paul Kagame, feared and admired in equal measure, is seeking to extend his 24-year rule in an election analysts say he will win by a landslide. He has dominated every election since becoming president in 2000, with over 90% of the vote. In 2017 he won with a staggering 99%. Mr Kagame, 66, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}