Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, won a sweeping triumph in the country’s 2024 presidential election held on July 15, securing a 4th term in office with 99.2% of the total votes against his opponents.
This victory reinforces Kagame’s hold on power and asserts his right to be there, echoing a familiar tale of power’s seductive allure.
Earlier in March, and in a context much alike, Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, won a landslide victory, being re-elected for a 5th term with over 87% of the votes.
In both regimes, the authorities have stifled voices of dissent and relegated all semblance of political opposition to the shadows of fear and fiery reprisals.
In the 2024 Elections provisional results released by Rwanda’s electoral agency, Paul Kagame’s two opponents, Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana, both garnered less than 1% of the total votes.
However, a Human Rights Watch on the political space in Rwanda put it that:
“Opposition parties in Rwanda face administrative obstacles to registration and political pressure to toe the government line. Over a dozen political opposition members are in prison and, in many cases, they are being prosecuted or have been convicted on spurious grounds.”
This explains Kagame’s victory margin in the 2024 presidential election with no serious competition, as in the past elections.
Paul Kagame first came to power after leading the rebel, Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Forces, which seized power from the Hutu government, ending the 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 to 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Kagame was considered the de facto leader as vice president from 1994 until 2000, when he became president, after his predecessor, Pasteur Bizimungu, resigned.
He won the first democratic election that brought him to power in 2003 and was re-elected in 2010 and 2017 for a second and third seven-year term each.
Since his first election in 2003, Kagame has invariably won with over 90% of the total votes, with his 2024 vote share being the highest in the last 4 presidential elections.
In 2015, Rwandans voted in a referendum to remove the two-term limit for the presidency and shorten the term length from seven to five years.
The report reads, “Rwanda’s National Electoral Commission has announced the provisional results of the referendum that show the majority have voted for an amendment to the constitution to allow the president to potentially extend his rule.”
“Voters overwhelmingly backed a referendum that provides President Paul Kagame with the opportunity to stay in office until 2034.”
This means following the 2024 election, Kagame will be eligible to run for another two five-year terms and potentially remain in power until 2034.
Russia’s Putin too enjoys Kagame’s kind of right to be there.
Putin’s new term in the March 2024 presidential election doesn’t expire until 2030, and he will be constitutionally eligible to run for office even then.
In March, Putin was re-elected to a 5th term in a tightly controlled election from which two candidates, who are critics of the ongoing war in Ukraine, were excluded on technical grounds. His most prominent rival, Alexei Navalny, died unexpectedly in an Arctic penal colony, while other major critics were imprisoned or forced into exile.
This pattern of prolonged rule and constitutional adjustments to extend the incumbent’s tenure are characteristic of most authoritarian states, where leaders often deploy all means, including legislative fiat, to retain power.