President Paul Kagame, the flag-bearer of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF Inkotanyi), has won 99.15% of the tallied votes in provisional results from the Monday, July 15, 2024, presidential election in Rwanda.
Provisional results as of July 15, 2024, 10 p.m. EAT indicate that Kagame was leading after garnering 7,099,815 votes out of the seven million tallied votes. Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda garnered 38,301 votes, accounting for 0.53%, while independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana was trailing with 22,753 votes, accounting for 0.32%.
According to the electoral authorities, Kagame’s opponents, including Habineza and Mpayimana, were collectively getting under one percent of the vote in provisional results, accounting for 79% of all ballots cast.
However, two of Kagame’s stronger critics, Diana Rwigara and Victoire Ingabire were blocked from running for high office over failure to meet the requirements set by the electoral body and High Court ruling that rehabilitation was incomplete, respectively.
Final results are expected by July 27, 2024, although they could be announced sooner.
Election authorities said that 9.5 million Rwandans were registered to vote in the country’s population of 14 million across 2,433 polling stations, with the presidential race being held at the same time as legislative elections for the first time.
The 66-year-old incumbent Kagame, who has been the president of Rwanda since 2000, is on the ballot paper alongside Mpayimana and Habineza, since six other presidential aspirants fell short of the requirements.
Preliminary reports indicate that in the parliamentary election, 589 candidates are chasing 80 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and of those, 53 are elected by universal suffrage. The Rwanda Patriotic Front currently holds 40 seats and its allies 11, while Habineza’s party has two MPs.
The other 24 spots are reserved for women, two for youths, and one for people with disabilities. All candidates for these seats must be independent, and indirect elections will be held on Tuesday, July 16th, 2024.
