Rwandans voted yesterday in a presidential election that incumbent Paul Kagame is poised to win, challenged only by candidates close to his regime following a tense run-up marred by arrests and killings.
His supporters credit the former rebel leader with ending the genocide and ushering in stability and growth, but critics accuse him of undermining democracy and cracking down on opponents.
Some 5.2 million Rwandans are eligible to cast their ballot.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Polling stations in the capital Kigali opened at 6am sharp, a correspondent reported.
“In some places, people were standing in line before 5am, as early as 4:30am,” said police spokesman Eric Kayiranga, who added that no incidents were reported overnight.
State radio reported that at some polling stations in the Western Province, every voter on the registry had cast their ballot in the first hour.
Emmanuel Ndagijimana, a young domestic worker sporting a Las Vegas T-shirt, arrived breathless at a polling station in a primary school in Kigali’s Kimihurura district, obviously in a hurry to get back to work.
“It’s important to come and choose the president,” he said.
Asked which candidate he would choose, he said: “It’s a secret.”
There was little doubt, however, that the 52-year-old Kagame, who won the 2003 election with 95 percent of the vote, would win a second term in office.
Kagame has been the de facto leader of this central African nation since his rebel group turned political party, the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic front (RPF), routed Hutu extremists after the genocide that claimed 800,000 lives.
In this election, Kagame is running against three candidates who all backed him in 2003.
Three new parties, two of which have not been registered by the authorities, were all excluded from the vote and have denounced the election process as a sham, branding Kagame’s challengers as stooge candidates.
However, the challengers vigorously deny the charge and say their programs are similar to those of the RPF only because post-genocide Rwanda needs continuity.
Kagame, promising unity and development, mobilized hundreds of thousands of feverish supporters decked out in the party colors at his US-style campaign rallies, with highlights transmitted on the Internet sites.
His government, thanks partly to generous international funding, has turned around the economy of a country with few natural resources, focusing on services and new technology as well as modernizing agriculture.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese