Paul Kagame has won Rwanda’s presidential election in a landslide, with 95,05% of the vote, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) announced on Tuesday.
”I hereby declare publicly, according to provisional results, as is provided for in the electoral law, that out of the three candidates in the presidential race, Kagame is the winner,” NEC president Chrysologue Karangwa said as a group of the former guerrilla leader’s supporters applauded loudly.
Former prime minister Faustin Twagiramungu, Kagame’s main opponent in Monday’s election, the first since the 1994 genocide in the central African country, garnered 3,62% of votes.
The third candidate, former minister Jean-Nepomuscene Nayinzira, won 1,33%, Karangwa said.
The Supreme Court has five days in which to officially declare the final results.
President Kagame (46) who led the Tutsi rebellion which put an end to the 1994 genocide in which one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered, got his highest score in the two northwestern provinces of Gisenyi and Ruhengeri, with more than 99% of the votes.
These two regions were the home provinces of the masterminds of the genocide.
Kagame got his lowest score, 82,86%, in the capital Kigali, where Twagiramungu fared the best, with 9,74%. The defeated candidate won only 0,7% of the vote in his native Cyangugu province, according to the electoral commission. – Sapa-AFP