With a 99.18% vote share in the 2024 presidential elections, according to full provisional results published Thursday, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame secured an even greater margin than in the last vote in 2017, which he swept with 98.79% of the vote. Kagame’s latest election victory sees Rwanda’s longstanding leader enter his fourth decade at the helm since he seized power as the head of a rebel group that ended the 1994 genocide.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has been re-elected with an emphatic 99.18 percent of the vote, according to full provisional results Thursday, but rights activists say the outcome is a stark reminder of the lack of democracy in the country.

A crushing victory in Monday’s vote was never in doubt for the all-powerful Kagame, who has ruled the small African nation as de facto leader then president for three decades.

The 66-year-old — who will extend his rule by another five years — won by an even bigger margin than in the last presidential ballot seven years ago, when he secured 98.79 percent.

Democratic Green Party leader Frank Habineza garnered just 0.5 percent and independent Philippe Mpayimana 0.32 percent, according to the National Electoral Commission.

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The men, who had also challenged Kagame in 2017, were the only two candidates approved to run this year after several opposition figures were barred.

Kagame is credited with rebuilding a shattered nation after the 1994 genocide, but is also accused of ruling in a climate of fear, and of fomenting instability in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Several regional leaders have already congratulated Kagame on his fourth term, but rights campaigners reacted with dismay.

“Kagame’s unprecedented score of over 99 percent in the election should be seen as a reflection of just how limited political space for the opposition is in Rwanda today,” said Clementine de Montjoye, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.

The outcome “does not bode well for anyone seeking to engage in legitimate and credible opposition activities”.

Victory ‘without glory’ 

But motorbike taxi rider Joseph Byirongiro, 35, hailed the result.

“This is what I expected and wanted. Kagame is a good leader and I voted for him,” he told AFP.

“Such a score is not shocking here in Rwanda, that’s why foreigners will always be confused, but this is how we vote in big numbers.”

Kagame has won every presidential election he has contested with more than 93 percent of the ballot.

In 2015, he oversaw controversial constitutional amendments that shortened presidential terms to five years from seven but reset the clock for the Rwandan leader, allowing him to potentially rule until 2034.

With 65 percent of the population aged under 30, Kagame is the only leader most Rwandans have ever known.

Over nine million people — including two million first-time voters — were registered, with the presidential race being held simultaneously as legislative elections for the first time.

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