Kagame secures 99% of votes to win fourth term as Rwanda president

Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, has won 99.15 percent of the votes from Monday’s presidential election to secure a fourth term in office.

Only about 79 percent of ballots have been counted, according to the country’s electoral commission.

Authorities said 9.5 million Rwandans registered to vote. The country has a population of 14 million.

Kagame’s opponents — Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana — each received less than one percent in the provisional results.

The result is the same as 2017 when Kagame swooped nearly 99 percent of the votes.

The president thanked Rwandans for their trust, in an address at his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party headquarters in Kigali, the capital city.

Kagame seized power as the head of rebels who took control of the government and ended the genocide in 1994, becoming vice-president and de facto leader from then to 2000, when he became president.

The 64-year-old is eligible to continue in office till 2034 after a constitutional amendment in 2015 changed a two-term limit.

Although he has garnered international acclaim for presiding over peace and economic growth since the end of the genocide in Rwanda, he has also faced criticisms from rights groups and the West.

But the Rwandan leader has said he is not bothered about what foreign countries think of his decision to extend his rule.

On Saturday, he told journalists that his mandate comes from the people.