/ 18 April 2000

KAGAME ELECTED RWANDAN PRESIDENT

RWANDAN political strongman Paul Kagame has been elected president by an electoral college of parliamentarians and members of the government. Kagame, head of the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), was voted in by 81 votes to five. He was standing against RPF Secretary-General Charles Murigande. He had been acting president since the previous head of state, President Pasteur Bizimungu, stood down last month and had been widely expected to win the vote.