Rwandans voted smoothly on Monday in a presidential and parliamentary elections that are expected to give the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) party a landslide win. RPF has been in power since 1994 following the end of genocide against the Tutsi.
President Paul Kagame of RPF is up against familiar rivals from the last election in 2017: Dr. Frank Habineza of the opposition Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR) and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana.
In the 2017 election, Kagame won nearly 99% of the votes where his opponents struggled to attract supporters during the campaigning, but Habineza, who cast his vote in Kimironko, Kigali, told the press that his party “has improved, and we are confident we will perform very well this time.”
Many polling stations in the capital, Kigali, had long lines. A total of 9.5 million Rwandans registered to vote out of the country’s almost 14 million residents.
In the Kayonza district, Jean Manzi voted for President Kagame because of his development efforts. She said that after what happened in 1994, he chose to guarantee peace and security for Rwandans.
Since 1994, Kagame has led the East African nation and ended the genocide against the Tutsi. He was vice president and de facto leader from 1994 to 2000, when he became president.
