President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has secured 99.15 percent of the votes in the country’s presidential election, winning a fourth term in office.
Rwanda’s electoral body reported that approximately 79 percent of ballots have been counted so far. Authorities stated that 9.5 million Rwandans registered to vote out of a population of 14 million.
Kagame, 64, is eligible to remain in office until 2034, following a 2015 constitutional amendment that removed the two-term limit.
Only two challengers, Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana, were permitted to run against him, each receiving less than one percent of the votes in the provisional results.
This result mirrors the 2017 election, where Kagame garnered nearly 99 percent of the votes.
Kagame came to power as the leader of the rebels who ended the genocide in 1994, becoming vice-president and de facto leader until he assumed the presidency on April 22, 2000.
