Landslide victory confirmed for Kagame in Rwanda presidential election

Kagame has been president of the country since 2000, but has, in practice, been leading Rwanda since 1994. Back then, as leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), he marched into Rwanda from exile in Uganda and ended the genocide of the Hutu militias against the Tutsi. He was then defence minister and vice-president.

Kagame’s party, RPF, is the strongest party in parliament following the elections. According to figures from the electoral commission, it won 37 seats in parliament, while none of the opposition parties won more than five seats.

A total of 670 candidates ran for the 80 parliamentary seats.

A special feature is that female lawmakers make up a majority in parliament.

Human rights organisations have criticised the persecution of opposition figures in the East African country with a population of over 14 million.

Lewis Mudge, director for Central Africa at the human rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW), described the election as “theatre”.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International claims that the candidacies of at least six opposition politicians were denied by the electoral commission, citing allegedly missing documents, although the politicians had sufficient voter support to qualify for the election.