Rwanda’s Kagame critic Victoire Ingabire queries legitimacy of his win

Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire has dismissed President Paul Kagame’s landslide electoral win, challenging the legitimacy of “an election where no candidate can really challenge Kagame.”

Provisional results declared on Monday night by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) indicated that the veteran leader garnered 99.15 percent, or 7,099,810 votes out of the 7,160,864 counted.

His rivals, Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green party got 38,301 votes, or 0.53 percent, and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana received 22,753 votes (0.32 percent).

Ms Ingabire, a former convict, was denied a ticket to vie in the just-concluded election.

She said the election was neither free nor fair and wants the President to open up the democratic space for Rwandans to have a say on how they are governed.

“An election where no candidate can really challenge President Kagame diminishes the legitimacy of democracy in our country,” Ms Ingabire said. “Rwandans have no choice to determine the leader they want because the number of people who are allowed to participate in the elections is limited.”

In March 2024, the High Court in Rwanda declined Ingabire’s application for rehabilitation, preventing her from “recovering her civic rights,” including the right to travel out of the country and to participate in any elections in Rwanda.

She then moved to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) to challenge the decision.

In her application, she requested interim measures to prevent the "irreparable harm that would be caused from precluding her from registering as a presidential candidate.”

The case is pending before the regional court.

On Tuesday, while reacting to the President’s landslide victory, Ms Ingabire said it would not have happened if there was a level playfield.

“The fact that President Kagame has won with over 99 percent shows that there was no competition,” she said.

Ingabire, a harsh critic of the Kagame administration, left Rwanda for the Netherlands in March 1994. There, she founded a political party in 2006 and returned to Rwanda in January 2010, to participate in the presidential election scheduled later that year.

She was arrested, tried, and sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of inciting divisionism and conspiring against the government.

She appealed before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which in 2017 ruled that Rwanda had violated her rights to freedom of expression and a defence.

After serving eight years in jail, five of which were spent in solitary confinement, she was released on a presidential pardon in September 2018.

In her EACJ application on April 30, 2024, she sought to be allowed to visit her ailing husband in the Netherlands and she hopes that she will now be let out of the country.

“Now that the elections, which I was not allowed to participate in are over, please let Kagame allow me to visit my family,” she said.

Meanwhile, President Kagame’s two competitors conceded defeat as he cruised to a fourth term.

Speaking at the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) headquarters in Rusororo, Kigali, shortly after the announcement of the interim results, the President told his supporters: “You voted well!” and thanked the other parties in coalition with the RPF, seven of which endorsed his candidature and re-election.

Thanking his family, whom he called “my walking stick,” he added: “Let me particularly thank you all who voted for me, and the whole country, the artistes and youth who were with me throughout, I can’t thank you enough. I am thankful for the continued trust in me, manifested throughout the campaigns and now in the election results.”

“What was read in the poll results — where I am leading by a very big margin — those are not just numbers, it is that trust you have in me, and that’s what truly matters,” the President said.

“This is unusual. That is why many can’t fathom or understand, hence often discrediting our results, this is the uniqueness of RPF and Rwandans.”

He indicated that he would hit the ground running to continue with the RPF development agenda.

“The elections are now behind us, what is left is developing Rwanda.”

Polling was largely smooth, as indicated by election observers and Kagame was widely expected to win.

Many voters across the country went out on Monday, some clad in traditional attire common in weddings, to cast their ballots for President and members of Parliament.

Some polling stations were decorated like wedding venues, with others going the extra mile of placing traditional wedding materials such as calabashes and gourds to symbolise a traditional wedding ceremony.

The earliest recorded arrival at a polling station for this election was 4 am, at Rugangazi in Nyanza district.

By 7 am, there were queues all over, and by noon a majority of the people had cast their ballots.

In some places such as Musanze and Muhima in Kigali, voters were offered free coffee, tea, and snacks.

The NEC deployed more than 100,000 “volunteers,” at polling stations across the country, guiding people and helping the elderly and people with disabilities to vote.

In a departure from the past, the NEC allowed registered voters to vote at any polling station, as opposed to only where they were registered.

Voting ended at 3 pm and counting commenced immediately.

The results from each polling station will be consolidated at the district level and then transferred to the national tallying centre.

According to NEC chairperson Oda Gasinzigwa, vote tallying will continue until July 20, with provisional results for both presidential and parliamentary elections announced on that day. The final results will be declared on July 27.