Rwandans are voting in elections that are expected to extend President Paul Kagame's 30-year rule.
KIGALI, Rwanda – Rwandans will vote on Monday in a presidential election that is expected to extend the long rule of President Paul Kagame, who has been in power since 1994.
In the capital, Kigali, some voters arrived as early as 5 a.m. and waited for polling stations to open, with long queues forming at some polling stations.
“This is my first time voting and I am voting for President Kagame because I have never seen a leader like him,” said motorbike passenger Jean-Claude Nkurunziza.
Election officials said 9.5 million people are registered to vote in Rwanda's population of 14 million. Provisional results are due to be announced later on Monday.
The result is almost certain to favour Kagame, an authoritarian leader who is virtually unchallenged.
His opponents are Frank Habineza of the Rwanda Democratic Green Party and independent candidate Philippe Mpaimana, but both struggled to rally supporters during the election.
Kagame faced the same candidate in 2017, winning nearly 99% of the vote.
Habineza told The Associated Press on Monday that the party is “improving and I'm confident that this time we will achieve a very good result.”
Kagame, 66, has ruled the small East African country since he seized power in 1994 as leader of a rebel group that seized control of the Rwandan government and ended the genocide.
He served as Rwanda's vice president and de facto leader from 1994 until he first became president in 2000. He is condemned by many as a violent dictator but also praised for presiding over impressive growth in the three decades since the genocide.
Kagame is one of several African leaders who have extended their hold on power by pursuing changes to term limits: In 2015, Rwandans voted to lift the two-term limit in a national referendum, potentially allowing Kagame to stay in power until 2034.
President Kagame told reporters on Saturday that he owed his mandate to the people.
“The ruling party and the Rwandan people have asked me to run for re-election,” he said. “Personally, I can go home and rest in peace.”
Rwanda's election comes amid growing insecurity in Africa's Great Lakes region, where a violent rebel group known as M23 is battling the Congolese army in remote areas of eastern Congo.
In a report distributed last week, U.N. experts said between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan troops were fighting alongside M23. The U.S. government says the group is backed by Rwanda, which has accused the Congolese army of recruiting fighters who were among the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.
Human rights groups continue to sound the alarm about severe restrictions on human rights, including freedom of association, in Rwanda.
In a recent statement, Amnesty International expressed concern about “intimidation, arbitrary detention, prosecution on trumped-up charges, killings and enforced disappearances” targeting Rwanda's opposition.
The statement said the suppression of dissent, including civil society and the media, has “had a chilling effect and limited space for debate for Rwandans.”
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