Paul Kagame has been re-elected as the President of Rwanda for a fourth consecutive term, securing an overwhelming 99.18% of the votes, according to the full results announced by the Election Commission. This landslide victory surpasses his previous election results, where he received slightly less than 99% of the votes.
Kagame, who first took office in 2000, has been a central figure in Rwandan politics since the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) overthrew the Hutu government in 1994, ending a genocide that claimed the lives of 800,000 people, predominantly from the Tutsi minority. His leadership has been marked by significant economic progress, but also by criticism for suppressing political opposition and interfering in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In the recent elections, Kagame's main opponents, Frank Habiniza of the Rwanda Democratic Green Party and independent candidate Philip Mbayimana, received 0.5% and 0.32% of the votes, respectively. The Electoral Commission had previously excluded eight candidates due to various reasons, including judicial rulings and incomplete documentation.
Simultaneously, parliamentary elections were held in which the Rwandan Patriotic Front and its allies secured a large majority of seats. Kagame's popularity remains high due to his role in promoting Rwanda's economic recovery post-1994 massacres, despite ongoing criticisms of his authoritarian governance.
- The re-election of Paul Kagame was anticipated, with partial results already indicating a decisive victory. Kagame's consistent high vote percentages reflect his strong grip on Rwandan politics and the electorate's support for his leadership.
- Benjamin Chemouni, a professor of development studies at the Catholic University of Louvain, noted that the election results are consistent with previous elections, where Kagame received 98.63% in 2017 and 93% in 2010. Chemouni emphasized there was little reason to expect different outcomes this time, given Kagame's established political dominance.
