Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire has criticized President Paul Kagame’s overwhelming electoral victory, questioning the legitimacy of “an election where no candidate can truly challenge Kagame.”
Provisional results announced on Monday night by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) showed that Kagame secured 99.15 percent of the vote, amounting to 7,099,810 votes out of 7,160,864 counted.
Kagame’s opponents, Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party, received 38,301 votes (0.53 percent), while independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana got 22,753 votes (0.32 percent).
Ingabire, who was previously imprisoned, was barred from running in the recent election.
She argued that the election was neither free nor fair and urged the President to open up the democratic space, allowing Rwandans more influence over how they are governed.
“An election where no candidate can really challenge President Kagame diminishes the legitimacy of democracy in our country,” Ms Ingabire said. “Rwandans have no choice to determine the leader they want because the number of people who are allowed to participate in the elections is limited.”
In March 2024, the High Court in Rwanda declined Ingabire’s application for rehabilitation, preventing her from “recovering her civic rights,” including the right to travel out of the country and to participate in any elections in Rwanda.
She then moved to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) to challenge the decision.
In her application, she requested interim measures to prevent the “irreparable harm that would be caused from precluding her from registering as a presidential candidate.”
The case is pending before the regional court.
On Tuesday, while reacting to the President’s landslide victory, Ms Ingabire said it would not have happened if there was a level playfield.
“The fact that President Kagame has won with over 99 percent shows that there was no competition,” she said.
Victoire Ingabire, a prominent critic of the Kagame administration, left Rwanda for the Netherlands in March 1994. In 2006, she founded a political party and returned to Rwanda in January 2010 to participate in the presidential election later that year.
She was subsequently arrested, tried, and sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of inciting divisionism and conspiring against the government.
Ingabire appealed to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which in 2017 ruled that Rwanda had violated her rights to freedom of expression and defense.
After serving eight years in prison, including five years in solitary confinement, she was released on a presidential pardon in September 2018.
In her application to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) on April 30, 2024, she requested permission to visit her ailing husband in the Netherlands, hoping to be allowed to leave the country.
“Now that the elections, which I was not allowed to participate in are over, please let Kagame allow me to visit my family,” she said.
Meanwhile, President Kagame’s two competitors conceded defeat as he secured a fourth term.
Speaking at the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) headquarters in Rusororo, Kigali, shortly after the interim results were announced, the President addressed his supporters, saying, “You voted well!” He also expressed gratitude to the other parties in coalition with the RPF, seven of which had endorsed his candidacy and re-election.
Thanking his family, whom he called “my walking stick,” he added: “Let me particularly thank you all who voted for me, and the whole country, the artistes and youth who were with me throughout, I can’t thank you enough. I am thankful for the continued trust in me, manifested throughout the campaigns and now in the election results.”
“What was read in the poll results — where I am leading by a very big margin — those are not just numbers, it is that trust you have in me, and that’s what truly matters,” the President said.
“This is unusual. That is why many can’t fathom or understand, hence often discrediting our results, this is the uniqueness of RPF and Rwandans.”
He indicated that he would hit the ground running to continue with the RPF development agenda.
“The elections are now behind us, what is left is developing Rwanda.”
Polling proceeded smoothly, according to election observers, with Kagame widely anticipated to win.
On Monday, many voters across the country participated, some dressed in traditional wedding attire, to cast their ballots for President and Parliament members.
Several polling stations were decorated like wedding venues, complete with traditional items such as calabashes and gourds symbolizing a wedding ceremony.
The earliest arrival at a polling station was recorded at 4 am in Rugangazi, Nyanza district.
By 7 am, queues had formed nationwide, and by noon, most people had cast their votes.
In areas like Musanze and Muhima in Kigali, voters were offered free coffee, tea, and snacks.
The NEC deployed over 100,000 volunteers at polling stations across the country, assisting voters, including the elderly and disabled.
For the first time, the NEC allowed registered voters to cast their ballots at any polling station, not just where they were registered.
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