(15 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kigali, Rwanda – 15 July 2024
1. Various of vote counting underway at polling station
STORYLINE:
Vote counting has begun in polling stations across Rwanda as polls closed on Monday in a presidential election that is expected to extend the long rule of President Paul Kagame.
Kagame, an authoritarian leader who is running virtually unopposed, has held power since the end of the country’s genocide in 1994.
Kagame faced the same opponents – Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana – in the previous election in 2017 in which Kagame took nearly 99% of the vote.
His opponents struggled to attract supporters during campaigning, but Habineza told The Associated Press that his party “has improved, and we are confident we will perform very well this time.”
Election authorities say 9.5 million Rwandans are registered to vote in the population of 14 million.
Provisional results are expected later on Monday.
Kagame has led the East African country since he seized power as the head of rebels who took control of the government and ended the genocide in 1994.
He was vice president and de facto leader from 1994 to 2000, when he became president.
He has been condemned by many as a violent authoritarian but praised by others for presiding over impressive growth in the three decades since the genocide.
Kagame is among African leaders who have prolonged their rule by pursuing changes to term limits.
In 2015, Rwandans in a referendum voted to lift a two-term limit.
Now Kagame could stay in power until 2034.
On Saturday, he told journalists that his mandate comes from the people.
Rwanda’s election takes place amid heightened fears of insecurity in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
Rebels known as M23 are fighting Congolese forces in a remote area of neighbouring eastern Congo.
Between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan forces are fighting alongside M23, United Nations experts said in a report circulated last week.
The US government has described the group as being backed by Rwanda.
Rwanda accuses Congo’s military of recruiting fighters who were among the perpetrators of the genocide.
Rights groups continue to raise alarm over harsh restrictions on human rights, including freedom of association, in Rwanda.
AP video shot by Allan Atulinda
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