More than 9 million Rwandans were called to vote for a new president on Monday, and according to official results, more than 99% of them supported the incumbent Paul Kagame for a fourth term.

Soon after polls closed on Monday evening, the election commission said that Kagame had won 99.15% of the votes. 

It also put turnout at a staggeringly high 98%. By comparison, even in those few countries where citizens are legally obliged to vote or face a fine, such as Australia, turnout only ever tends to be between 90 and 95%. 

Same opposition candidates, similarly poor performance

The apparent interest in the vote was all the more surprising, given that it was effectively a re-run of a non-contest in 2017, when Kagame won 98.79% of the vote. 

Only two opposition candidates, the same ones as in 2017, had been allowed to compete. Eight people had applied.

Frank Habineza, the leader of the Democratic Green Party, looked set to claim 0.53% of votes, compared to 0.48% in 2017.

Philippe Mpayimana, an independent, was on track for 0.32%, according to early projections.

Autocracy and infrastructure

Kagame, 66, is seen in turn as an autocrat who swiftly silences any criticism but also as a strong leader who brought the country back to stability after the devastating genocide of 1994. Some 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, died in a period of 100 days. Kagame has been the de facto leader since then and president since 2000.

Abroad, Kagame has been heavily criticized for arbitrarily jailing his political opponents, as well as extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

He has also been accused of stoking unrest in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, where a recent UN report says Rwandan troops are fighting alongside M23 rebels in the troubled east.

With some 65% of Rwanda's population under 30, Kagame is the only leader much of the country has ever known. He has overseen controversial new laws that allow him to rule until at least 2034.

For weeks, the powerful propaganda arm of his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has been working full-tilt while courts rejected appeals from prominent opposition figures Bernard Ntaganda and Victoire Ingabire to remove previous convictions that effectively disqualified them from running.

Despite reports from the World Bank saying almost half the population lives on less than $2.15 (approximately €1.97) per day, Kagame maintains broad popularity in Rwanda.

He is credited with economic growth rates of an average of 7.2% between 2012 and 2022 and the development of infrastructure, including hospitals and roads.

msh, es/lo (AFP, dpa)