Kagame expands 17-year reign in Rwanda, gets another seven years

Paul Kagame, on Friday, expanded his 17-year reign in Rwandan politics.
He was re-elected as president for the third term and the 59-year-old former guerrilla leader will spend another seven years in office.
With 80 per cent of votes accounted for, Kagame already secured 98.66 per cent.
The National Electoral Commission’s Executive Secretary, Charles Munyaneza, said: “We expect that even if we get 100 per cent of votes, there will not be any change”.
Kagame won international plaudits for presiding over a peaceful and rapid economic recovery in the Central African nation since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus were killed.
But he has also faced mounting censure for what critics and rights groups say are widespread human rights abuses, a muzzling of independent media and suppression of political opposition.
The electoral commission expected turnout to top 90 per cent in the East African country of 12 million citizens once full details emerged, in elections that fielded only a single opposition candidate, Frank Habineza, and an independent.
Kagame, who cast his vote in Kigali’s Rugunga polling station earlier on Friday, said he would work to sustain economic growth in the tiny nation.
“This is another seven years to take care of issues that affect Rwandans and ensure that we become real Rwandans who are (economically) developing,” he said in a speech broadcast live on television.
Under his rule, some dissidents were killed after they fled abroad, in cases that remain unsolved. The government denies any involvement.
Kagame, a commander who led Tutsi rebel forces into Rwanda to end the 1994 genocide, banned the use of tribal terms after becoming president.
He won the last election in 2010 with 93 per cent of the votes and during this campaign for a further seven-year term, said he expected an outright victory.
Habineza, who has so far won 0.45 per cent of the early count, had promised to set up a tribunal to retry dissidents whose convictions by Rwandan courts have been criticized as politically motivated.
Another would-be opponent, Diane Rwigara, was disqualified by the election board, despite her insistence that she met all the requirements to run.
“To me, I see this as a one-man race. I simply did not go to vote,” said one man in Kigali who asked not to be named.